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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28233786">A Maid To Order Christmas</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcinnamonbun/pseuds/sweetcinnamonbun'>sweetcinnamonbun</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Maid To Order [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Maid Cafe, Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten is Whipped, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, I can't believe I had to tag that, Implied Sexual Content, Johnny and Ten as parents, Johnny is bad about hitting the send on his texts when he's too excited, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Meeting the Parents, Spoilers for Dragula Seasons 2 and 3 in chapter 2 so be warned, Suh Youngho | Johnny is Whipped, Ten gets really sappy a lot just sayin, Ten works at a maid cafe and also does drag in this, Yuta has a foul mouth when he shows up oops, and Changkyun and Hyungwon are a married couple who both do drag, god that doesn't even begin to cover it, johnny works at a muscle cafe, more tags and characters and couples to be added, spicy ass communication, there are so many characters I can't, there are some really dumb presents during secret santa, they're just really soft and sappy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:42:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>31,057</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28233786</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcinnamonbun/pseuds/sweetcinnamonbun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not like this was going to be one of the most important weeks of Ten's life or anything, with him meeting his boyfriend's mom in person for the first time. And it's not like the fact that he's planning to propose at the Im-Chae annual Christmas party in four days.</p><p>No pressure or anything.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chae Hyungwon/Im Changkyun | I.M, Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Dong Si Cheng | WinWin/Qian Kun, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Lee Taeyong, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Moon Taeil, Mark Lee/Nakamoto Yuta, past yuwin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Maid To Order [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2068245</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>71</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Day One: The Arrival</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So Maid To Order started off as a joke about a rivalry between a muscle café and a maid café where all the workers dress in drag. I actually plan to post the whole story at some point, but for now, I have been having a crappy Christmastime and needed some sappy, cutesy stuff.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>More than anything else at the moment, Ten despised being late.</p><p>He was the last person to lock up, which wouldn’t have been so much of a problem if the last person hadn’t taken so damn long and now he was running late to get ready for dinner.</p><p>Not just any dinner, either.</p><p>No, this was the dinner where he was going to meet his boyfriend’s mom for the first time and first impressions were pivotal. He needed time to shower after his shift and then dress and ready himself for the most important first impression of his entire fucking life.</p><p>He threw on his long coat before scurrying outside and locking the doors, running - well, slipping and sliding - his way to the nearest bus stop, relief flooding his system as the bus turned the corner just as he made it to the stop. No standing out in the cold wearing a long coat (that he had stolen off of his boyfriend) and the short Santa suit romper that he had been wearing on the days leading up to Christmas.</p><p>Once on the bus, he sighed, flopping into a nearby seat and pulling out his phone to text Johnny.</p><p>
  <i>From: Tennie<br/>
plz start a shower in like 15 min<br/>
i have never once asked for anything from u b4<br/>
not one time<br/>
love u</i>
</p><p>He knew, for a fact, that he had asked for many things almost daily, including that very morning where he’d asked for pancakes (as only Johnny knew how to make them really fluffy with extra chocolate chips), no less than seven kisses (it would have been more if he had the opportunity to be the blanket goblin that he wanted to be, all rolled up in the thick comforters and heated blankets they'd brought out for winter) and the lunchbox brought down from the top shelf (it’s not his fault his boyfriend stood thirteen centimetres taller than him and had a fucking wide wingspan). None of that was the point, though. The point was to have a shower ready and waiting and hot for him to jump into the moment he stepped into their flat, though getting the thigh high boots off in record time was going to be a feat.</p><p>He took a deep breath, impatiently drumming his manicured fingernails on his thigh as he watched the buildings pass by, all pretty with their coating of sparkling and fluffy snow. It might have been nice if it wasn’t so goddamn freezing.</p><p>At least one good thing came from all the cold and slush and that was staying inside, bundled in blankets in front of a crackling fire, huddled up to his favorite space heater… um, boyfriend. Sometimes there would be oversized sweaters and hot chocolate as they watched a movie, Ten’s feet tucked under Johnny’s thigh to keep warm. Sometimes, they wouldn’t even get out of bed for hours on a day off, though the reasons for that varied quite a bit.</p><p>The moment the bus pulled to his stop, he was out of his seat and practically launching himself out onto the sidewalk, ignoring the driver’s warnings about ice. He called out a thanks over his shoulder as he walked as fast as he could, until a patch of ice caught him off guard and he slipped and landed hard on the concrete. It took him a moment to stand up, hissing softly as he rubbed his ass.</p><p>The problem was that he now had a wet patch on his romper and snow in his boots as he hurried back home. The keys slipped from his hands and into a pile of snow, leaving his hands wet and cold after he retrieved them. He was still a little ways from their door, muttering a string of curses in his mother tongue until he was standing in front of their door, sighing at the newly placed mat as he found the house key on the ring and unlocked the door, stepping onto the indoor mat after slamming the door shut to spite the bitter chill. He shucked off the coat, hanging it up as he looked for Johnny’s looming presence.</p><p>“Suh! Get your sweet little perky ass over here and on your knees!” he called out into the fairly quiet apartment, “I need to be undressed in the next fifteen seconds so I can just fling myself into that shower!”</p><p>There was a snort of laughter and Ten craned his neck to look into the living room, seeing a familiar woman staring at him.</p><p>Oh god.</p><p>That woman definitely looked like her son - his boyfriend. That was definitely Mrs. Suh sitting on his couch, using the spare mug and staring at him in his short, bright red, fur-trimmed romper and too-tall black leather boots. Johnny poked his head into the foyer, a nervous laugh escaping him at Ten’s deer-in-headlights stare.</p><p>“Hi, baby,” he started, his voice even and gentle, “She caught an earlier flight and… I guess I forgot to hit send on the text.” He walked a little closer, wearing some obnoxious Christmas sweater with blinking lights surrounding the words “Don we now our GAY apparel” that Yuta had gotten him as a joke the year before. It might have been endearing if Ten hadn’t been on the verge of crying. “Do you need help with the boots? I know they’re hell to get off.”</p><p>“I-I’m fine,” Ten sniffled, leaning down to start work on unlacing the boots as the stress hit him all at once to the point where he very nearly missed the cat winding around his feet. “Go back to your mom. I just need a moment.”</p><p>Johnny sighed, but didn’t budge, watching with uncertainty as Ten managed to kick off the first boot. “Want me to make you some hot chocolate or something?”</p><p>Ten paused his untying to give a weak nod, but Johnny still didn’t budge, probably waiting for his “welcome home” kiss. He paused what he was doing to stand up straight and wrap his arms around Johnny’s waist, burying his face in his chest. Johnny just quietly stroked his fingers through Ten’s hair as he held him close.</p><p>“Do you want the mini marshmallows?” he asked and Ten nodded again. “Okay. Can I give you a kiss?” There was a momentary pause before there was another nod and Johnny pulled away slightly so he could bend down to make good on that, kissing Ten lightly. “I’ll get a shower started for you, mmkay? You get that other boot off.”</p><p>Ten could have cried, knowing that the shower wasn’t already ready for him, but Johnny poked his head into the living room to tell his mom he’d be back in a moment before walking towards the master bathroom. Ten managed a weak smile and a small wave for Johnny’s mother just after he shucked off the other boot, shuffling through the apartment to his and Johnny’s bedroom to gather clothes for his shower.</p><p>Johnny was sitting on the edge of their bed, arms open for Ten to flop into. “What’s goin’ on, baby?”</p><p>“Just isn’t what I wanted her first impression of me to be. I need her to like me, Johnny,” he muttered, taking his boyfriend’s offering of open arms. “Instead she got me demanding that you get on your knees and undress me while I’m wearing a slutty Santa romper.”</p><p>There was a soft laugh at that, “Yeah… But she knows what you do for a living so… baby, it’s okay.” He kissed Ten’s head. “Now, take your shower and get into something warm. We’re ordering in tonight.”</p><p>“From where?”</p><p>“The Thai place just down the street. Because you’ve had a bad day and... I larb you.”</p><p>Ten couldn’t help the smile that took over his face, “You’re an idiot. You should be glad I’m not lactose intolerant with all that cheese you serve me.”</p><p>Johnny grinned as Ten took a step back, running into the bathroom to shower, letting the day’s stress run off of him with the warm water. He dried his hair and decided on some sweatpants and an oversized cream color sweater that he had definitely stolen from Johnny, the sleeves covering his hands.</p><p>He took a deep breath before exiting the bedroom and making his way to the living room to officially introduce himself to his boyfriend’s mom… Hopefully his mother-in-law soon enough, if he hadn’t screwed that one up.</p><p>Sheepishly, he waved as he walked in, Johnny’s wide grin as he walked over to him making his heart melt a little. “Mom, this is my boyfriend, Ten.”</p><p>Ten took a moment to examine her. Not to find something wrong to pick at, but just to admire her. This was the woman who had raised the love of his life and… God, that smile must have been genetic. They’d probably adopt, but it would be worth it for Johnny to have a biological kid because that smile was perfect. Especially if they had bunny teeth like their father.</p><p>Oh god, he was going to get emotional at this rate.</p><p>There were things that needed to happen before anything like that took place.</p><p>Which reminded him that he was still dumbly staring at his boyfriend’s mom, who had stood up with her hand extended to him. He took it after a moment, giving it a firm shake. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”</p><p>“And you!” she said excitedly. “Youngho’s told me so much about you! Ever since the incident with the dumpsters.”</p><p>Ten let out a nervous laugh, letting go of her hand and allowing the sweater to engulf his hands before taking the seat closest to Johnny, who was smiling widely. “Oh.. Which incident with the dumpsters?”</p><p>“The one where you declared him as your sworn enemy,” she hummed and Ten let out a little laugh.</p><p>“So the first meeting?” he asked, casting a glance at his boyfriend, who only laughed awkwardly in reply. “You’re cute.”</p><p>“I think you mean whipped, hmm?”</p><p>The night passed by rather well, with Ten answering every question he was asked and Johnny occasionally piping up when the inquiries got maybe a little too deep for the first time they were meeting.</p><p>Johnny’s mom was lively and excited and asked to see Ten’s dresses up close at some point over the week she’d be staying with them. Leon had been stretched across her lap almost the whole time, melting into a furry lump on her lap, and she seemed satisfied to scratch that spot under his chin. At some point over dinner, Ten had heard her crack the same larb joke that Johnny had made earlier and he wondered if maybe that was genetic, too.</p><p>He wouldn’t mind a future full of dimpled smiles, bunny teeth and bad jokes.</p><p>After dinner was hot chocolate and more conversation before they finally called it a night. Ten quickly changed into his favorite stolen band shirt (look, Johnny had good taste) and sleep shorts, turning on the heated blankets and burrowing himself under the five blankets on their bed. Johnny made a quick stop at the bathroom before he climbed under the covers on his side, Ten immediately wrapping himself around him and sliding his hands up his shirt.</p><p>“Am I cold?” he asked, voice innocent and sweet, despite the fact that his frozen fingers were placed on Johnny’s stomach, causing him to yelp.</p><p>“Jesus Christ, I live with an ice cube.”</p><p>With a slight pout, Ten rested his head on Johnny’s shoulder, removing one hand and keeping the other against his stomach to trace aimless patterns. “Your mom’s nice. It’s a shame you work tomorrow, though.”</p><p>“Yeah, but I think maybe the two of you need some time alone. Get to know each other and all. Without me there.”</p><p>Ten grumbled and buried his face into his neck, planting a featherlight kiss there, “I just have an errand to run. I can do it before you leave for work so she doesn’t have to be alone. Secret Santa stuff. Official business.”</p><p>There was a drawn out “fuuuuuuuuuck” as a realization hit Johnny. “I haven’t gotten anything for mine.”</p><p>“I can pick something up tomorrow if you want? Who do you have?”</p><p>“Jae. And could you? I don’t know what to get for him, though.”</p><p>Ten hummed and propped himself up to look at Johnny’s face. He was chewing his lip almost nervously, like he was unsure if he was asking too much of him to do this. “I know what to get for him, babe. Don’t worry about it. It’ll even be on my way to where I’m headed.”</p><p>Johnny threaded his fingers through Ten’s hair. “Who did you get?”</p><p>“It’s a secret, Suh. You’ll find out at the party.” And with that, he leaned down to kiss him on those perfect lips.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Day 2: It's A Drag</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Note: Chapter 2 contains spoilers for Dragula seasons 2 and 3. Also I have opinions that have kind of spilled into this (nothing bad, though)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next morning, Ten had woken up early, begrudgingly wiggled his way out of his spot at the little spoon(peppering Johnny’s face and hands with kisses as he did), and gotten dressed as warmly as he could. It was going to be two quick stops and then he’d be back home, wrapping presents and rewatching one of his favorite shows until Johnny’s mom joined him and then it would be Christmas movies in the background while they talked.</p><p>Easy.</p><p>Before he left, he patted himself down to check for his keys, his wallet, his phone and his gloves. All accounted for, so the next move was to make his way to the first store to pick up a gift for Yoonoh: a bright red lava lamp that had some sculpting to look vaguely like a volcano (that Ten had plenty of matte varnish and acrylic paints to make really pop).</p><p>When that was done, he made his way to the second shop for what was more than likely the most important gift he’d be giving this year. Or any year for that matter.</p><p>See, the planning for this had all begun when he had pulled Johnny’s name when they were deciding who they would be the secret santas for. As soon as he saw the name on the slip, the wheels in his head started to turn. See, they had talked about getting married and having a family one day, and they knew it was what they both wanted. He was going to propose sometime next year, officially, but now… Now his friends all knew what he planned (save for those who would open their mouths and blurt out everything to Johnny before the Christmas party.</p><p>Right now, he was on his way to pick up the ring.</p><p>Perfect timing, too. He would get to ask Johnny’s mom for her blessing while Johnny was at work.</p><p>It didn’t take too long before he was back on his way home, examining the ring in its box while he rode the bus to the closest stop to home, slipping it into his pocket when they got close to his stop.</p><p>The walk to the apartment was much less eventful, and he made it home without slipping and falling on his ass. Looking at the doormat this time had him chuckling. “Always jingle all the way, no one likes a half-assed jingler” was written across it in black and red font, and of course it had been Johnny’s pick. Ten’s would have been the “Meowy Christmas” mat, complete with a cat picture. He opened the door and was immediately greeted by both cats and the smell of breakfast. Herding the cats back inside and closing the door behind him, he took off his shoes, hung up his coat and scarf and walked into the kitchen to witness Johnny and his mom cooking together. Occasionally, they bumped shoulders and laughed about it, or she would make a sound, pointing to a high shelf, and Johnny wouldn’t hesitate to walk over and grab it.</p><p>Louis walked over, hopping onto the counter with a dopey expression as he headbutted Johnny on the arm, eventually leaning on him as he stood up on his hind legs to meow closer to Johnny’s face.</p><p>“You know you’re not supposed to be up here, buddy,” he chuckled, pressing a kiss to Louis’s soft head.</p><p>My god, Ten could feel the pull of his heartstrings as he watched. If he was inclined to be more dramatic, he probably would have found himself leaning on the wall with a hand fisting the shirt over his heart, slowly sinking to the floor. And while he did have a flair for the dramatic, he had only gone that far one time, and only to mess with Dongyoung.</p><p>Finally, and only because Johnny was struggling to both cook and appease the attention-seeking feline, he sighed and clicked his tongue three times. “Louis, come here.” The cat chirruped before leaping from the counter to walk over to Ten, who picked him up and carried him over to Johnny’s side anyways. “What are you making?”</p><p>Johnny paused his work to lean down and give him a quick kiss. “Mom wanted to make a full-Korean breakfast, so I’m helping. How was shopping?”</p><p>“Well, you got Jae something very thoughtful. And my shopping went perfectly,” Ten answered.</p><p>“Oh yeah? What did I get him?”</p><p>“A lava lamp. He was kind of upset that his old one busted when he and Taeyong were moving in together. I’m going to paint it a little to make it look better, but he’s going to love it. You did good.”</p><p>Johnny grinned, leaning in to give him another kiss. “What would I do without you, baby?”</p><p>Ten smiled, his eyes crinkling a little, “Be bored, probably. And show up to the Christmas party empty-handed.” He stood on the tips of his toes to kiss Johnny on the cheek before slipping out of the kitchen and setting Louis on the ground to make sure that the ring was still in his coat pocket.</p><p>It was, and he could feel himself breathe a sigh of relief at that.</p><p>He placed the ring in its box behind a picture frame on the mantle, just so it was unnoticeable for the moment. Next, he set out to unbox the lava lamp on the floor of the living room, only stopping when breakfast had been called. It was a bigger spread than they were used to in their apartment, and everything was damn delicious.</p><p>After breakfast and some clean-up, Ten packed Johnny a quick lunch as he got ready to leave for work. No less than seven farewell kisses later and Johnny was out the door, telling his mom that he’d see them later and to have fun.</p><p>Ten grabbed his paints and some old newspaper, laying it on the floor of the living room as he set to work on the lava lamp. He’d put on a favorite show in the background - Dragula, because it was something he’d seen a bunch of times - and set to work.</p><p>It wasn’t that it was hard work to add some dimension, he just liked the background noise and the knowledge that, if he looked up from his project, he could witness friendships forming, some wild drama or some exceptional drag.</p><p>“What’s this?” he heard Johnny’s mom ask as she walked over and took a seat on the couch nearby.</p><p>“The show? Dragula. It’s more accepting than the-show-that-must-not-be-named, and honestly… I just like it better. More of a spooky vibe and all,” he answered with a shrug, “I can put on something different.”</p><p>“No,” she hummed, lifting her mug of coffee to her lips to take a drink, “Just tell me what is on her nose?”</p><p>He looked at the screen and chuckled to himself, “Abhora? That’s just her style. Like how Erika Klash is styled after anime and harajuku stuff. They find their style in these things, and I kind of love it.”</p><p>She hummed and he could hear her nails lightly tapping on the ceramic of her borrowed mug. “Do you have a style with your drag?”</p><p>He paused and considered for a moment before shaking his head. “Nothing like that, at least. I mean I don’t really use padding to create a more feminine form, I guess? I have some friends who go all out, though, and they love it. It’s just a personal thing.”</p><p>There was another hum as she continued watching and he could feel the nerves bubbling up. Still, she just kept asking questions about the show playing, along with a few about him, his drag, and his personal interests. Eventually, he paused the show and turned to her, the final layer of varnish applied and drying.</p><p>“You wanna see some of what I’ve made?” he asked, and she set her mug down on a coaster, her eyes lighting up.</p><p>“Please!”</p><p>He got up and motioned her to follow, taking her to the master bedroom and throwing open the closet door. Running his fingers over the fabric, he settled on the Alice dress he’d been wearing when he and Johnny had first met, unhooking the hanger from the bar and holding it over himself with a grin as he swished the skirt. “This is one of my favorites. One of my best friends, Sicheng, got to choose a theme for his birthday, and he chose Disney. The cutest Cinderella I’ve seen in my whole life, by the way.” He sighed and laid it out on the bed for her to examine before grabbing one of the more traditional Thai dresses in red and gold. “Now this one… This one is my favorite. I don’t wear it much. I joked about how one day I’d wear it on my wedding day and upstage everyone else. But…” He paused, tracing patterns on the fabric fondly. “But, I want Johnny to shine on that day, too.”</p><p>She paused and looked up at him, eyes wide. “You want to marry my son?”</p><p>There was a pause before he gave a slow nod, “I… Yeah, actually… Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.” He pushed the Alice dress out of the way to sit on the edge of the bed. “I’m going to ask Johnny to marry me at our friends’ Christmas party. And I want your blessing. And I know we’ve just met, but I want to marry him and have a family and I want to love him for the rest of my life, so please give me your blessing because I’m asking either way.” He was pleading, his hands together looking like a prayer and he could feel the prickle of tears because <i>what if she didn’t approve?</i></p><p>He wasn’t expecting that big smile to take over her face when he looked up at her. “Youngho loves you so much and the way you look at him… I know you love him, too. You have my blessing. Now don’t cry.” She cupped his face in her hands, brushing away the forming tears. “Let’s have some tea and watch more of that show, hmm?”</p><p>Giving a weak nod, he let her pull him to his feet.</p><p>“Peppermint tea?” she asked. “And I just wanted to let you know that your seams are impeccable.”</p><p>He let out a slight laugh as he set the second dress down. “We can watch something else, you know. It’s not really for everyone.”</p><p>She shook her head, “No, this is something you like, and I’d like to get to know my new son.”</p><p>He half-laugh, half-sobbed at that. Maybe he was just way too overwhelmed with emotions.</p><p>The rest of the day was spent wrapped up in blankets on the couch, sipping hot tea, eating soup (Johnny’s mom made a mean kimchi jjigae), and watching old episodes of Dragula (Ten had seen seasons two and three with Johnny no less than six times). It was nice, and Ten felt like maybe this was exactly what they needed, even if he wanted Johnny there to see just how well things were going.</p><p>(He had to admit that she was exceptionally funny while watching the finale of season 2, with horrified stares and an ongoing commentary of “But Ten! She’s drinking MOP WATER!”, to which he glanced up, made a half comment about the hairball, and went back to scrolling on his phone for the time being. He’d seen it before and the filth segment always made him a little queasy, but the level of acceptance meant a lot to him.)</p><p>Time passed by, with pleasant conversation and neither of them really registering how much time had passed.</p><p>“Wait! Yovska’s gone!?” she gasped, setting her mug down on the table. “But… But Yovska isn’t the one who messed up the group performance!”</p><p>“I know!” Ten replied, “Like, come on! And like… Yovska was having such a hard time, feeling like their drag didn’t fit in! God bless Louisianna, though.”</p><p>She nodded, folding her arms across her chest, “Yes, but Hollow should have gone home for all of that. And they should have practiced more!”</p><p>“Believe me, I know!”</p><p>“What do you know?”</p><p>The sudden voice caused both of the couch potatoes to jump a bit, much to Leon and Louis’s distaste, Ten slumping when it realized it was just his boyfriend. Johnny’s mom recovered first, flashing Johnny a grin.</p><p>“That Yovska deserved to stay!” she announced, slapping the table lightly.</p><p>Johnny faked a dramatic heart attack, slumping against the wall. “You’re watching it without me!” He looked to them, only to be met with two guilty smiles. “Oh fine, move over.” Johnny walked over and sat between Ten and his mother, stealing blankets from both and maybe pulling Ten a little closer to him. “You guys have a good day?”</p><p>His mom just smiled, “Yeah, you gotta keep this one.”</p><p>Johnny let out a soft laugh, “I plan to.”</p><p>They ordered in again - fried chicken this time - and watched most of the rest of season three, with Johnny and Ten breaking out into a false argument about who should have won season two (Johnny was 100% team Bitqch and Ten was adamantly team Victoria, though mom weighed in that it should have been James). The conversation never seemed to stop, despite the amount of attention that the three of them were paying the show in the television</p><p>Ten loved the way they just let him fit into their family, with him halfway sprawled across his boyfriend’s lap, lazily running his fingers through Louis’s soft fur as the cat attempted to use both of his dads (They’d been living together for two years by this point, and Johnny was prone to buying whatever little toys or treats or costumes he thought would be perfect for his little furry babies. Hence, dad) as thrones in the most noodly way possible.</p><p>“Louis, are you a cat?” he asked in a yawn (far too tired to be coherent), gently playing with the feline’s ears, “Or are you a cute spaghetti?”</p><p>He could hear Johnny laugh softly at something his mom said as he started to stroke his finger’s through Ten’s hair until sleep finally claimed him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Day 3: Just Us And Your Friend...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>They get a surprise visit from a friend.</p><p>I feel like I need to explain that... no... Mark isn't dense in this. There's a lot of stuff that hasn't been clarified, but that will be discussed more in the next chapter.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Honestly, Ten didn’t recall how he made it there, but he woke up in his bed with his hopefully soon-to-be-fiance wrapped around him. They didn’t have to be up early for work, which was… It was wonderful, actually. It meant that they could stay in bed for however long they wanted, and Ten might have had some ideas for how to wake him up.</p><p>He wiggled around until he faced him before covering his face in kisses. “Johnny,” he hummed, “Baby wake up.”</p><p>Johnny only snuggled further into him, practically rolling on top of him as pulled the blankets tighter around him. “Sleep, Tennie,” he muttered.</p><p>“Sure, baby. We can sleep…” he hummed, voice brimming with mischief.</p><p> </p><p>“Why do I feel like there’s an ‘or’ coming up?” Johnny peered at him with one eye, keeping the other closed for a moment longer.</p><p>“Because there is,” Ten hummed, waggling his eyebrows, “This is our first day off together in a while. So… wanna fool around?”</p><p>“My <i>mom</i> is across the hall. What are you? A horny teenager?”</p><p>“We can be quiet. And we should just… close the door and <i>maybe</i> send off the cats.”</p><p>Johnny snorted and kissed him, “You? Quiet?” He paused and nodded towards the door. “Get the cats and the door, then.”</p><p>In hindsight, it probably wasn’t their most amazing decision, with the cries of two cats just outside their bedroom door. And maybe, when they finally decided to leave their room for some breakfast, Ten was giggling like a fool trying not to get caught (Good luck to him, though, as Johnny had managed to leave a hickey in plain view).</p><p>Ten threw together a quick breakfast of eggs and toast. Or, well, he cracked the eggs into the pan before Johnny set down his mug of coffee with a heavy sigh and shooed him off to toast the bread.</p><p>That might have had something to do with last year’s cookie incident.</p><p>Honestly, though, he’d just been <i>trying</i> to bake some cookies to set out for Santa (yes, he knew Santa wasn’t real, but Johnny had <i>just</i> been reminiscing about doing that in his childhood and Ten wanted to do something to make him smile).</p><p>He still hadn’t lived it down, and he probably never would.</p><p>There was a long moment of comfortable silence passed between them before Ten peered around, licking some stray nutella off of his fingers after he had slathered his two slices in it. “Where’s your mom?”</p><p>“Dunno. Can you go check on her? And don’t touch that toast again until you wash your hands.” He held a spatula as threateningly as he could, a playful look in his eyes.</p><p>“Why does it matter? It’s <i>my</i> toast. It’s not like I’m licking yours. But I <i>will</i>.” Keeping eye contact, Ten slowly reached over to the plate of currently unbuttered toast, sticking his tongue out, only to be stopped by the sound of the front door being thrown open.</p><p>“Good morning, sluts!” It was the unmistakable sound of Yuta’s voice calling into the relative quiet of the apartment. “Either quit your fuckin’ or invite me in!”</p><p>Johnny opened his mouth to say something, but that too was cut short when Johnny’s mom left her room, perking up slightly. “No one told me Yuta was coming over!” She walked towards the sound of Yuta’s loud rambling about his kind-of-sort-of relationship, which abruptly stopped with a noise that was easily recognized in Yuta’s collection of weird noises as delight. It was quickly followed by a sound of betrayal as the new arrival slid into the kitchen, a coffee carrier in one hand and a bag of what was more than likely scones in the other.</p><p>“You never told me mom was going to be here!” He looked equal parts excited, confused and upset, slamming the coffee carrier down on the table, some of the contents seeping through the lids. “I only got three of each!”</p><p>Johnny sighed, running his fingers through his hair and turning towards Yuta, who slumped into a chair with a pout. “That’s my bad, but… This was Ten’s first time meeting her, and you <i>know</i> how important this is. And I thought I told you two weeks ago when you and Mark came over.”</p><p>Ten hummed, “That’s the problem, then. You know he can’t focus when Mark is close.”</p><p>Yuta blinked a few times, eyes wide to feign innocence, “I don’t know what you mean.”</p><p>“I mean you’re so pent up that the second you see him, you-...”</p><p>“Okay!” Yuta yelped, eyeing the entryway to the kitchen as Johnny’s mom walked in, taking a seat next to him. “I… Yeah, I get a little distracted.”</p><p>“A little,” Johnny chuckled, quietly turning back to the eggs in the pan, “Dude, you’re <i>smitten</i>. I thought it was bad for the three months you and Si Cheng were dating.”</p><p>Johnny’s mom gasped, “Yuta, are you dating someone? We have so much to catch up on!”</p><p>Yuta nodded sheepishly and Ten snorted.</p><p>“No, he isn’t dating anyone because he hasn’t asked,” Johnny explained, “Don’t let him lie.”</p><p>There was a pause, with a slightly offended look passing over Yuta’s face. “I’ve taken Mark on dates! Nice places with just the two of us and <i>I</i> paid because it was a <i>date</i>.”</p><p>“But this is <i>Mark</i> we’re talking about. He might just think you’re being nice just because and not because you’re interested. You do kind of flirt with everyone,” Ten chimed, picking up his piece of toast with chocolate hazelnut spread to nibble at the corner. “Communication is important.”</p><p>“Ten’s right, you know,” Johnny’s mom piped up, smiling sweetly at her son when he placed a plate with eggs and two slices of fresh toast. “Now tell me all about him. What did I miss?”</p><p>Yuta pursed his lips a moment before reaching for one of the coffees in the carrier and stabbing the straw into its lid. “You remember Mark, right?” She nodded and he continued. “Right, so… Some time after Si Cheng and I ended things, I just started noticing things about him. And I like him. Like a lot. Like I want to have what Johnny and Ten have with him.”</p><p>She reached out to cover one of his hands with her own, giving it a couple of reassuring pats. “Well, that will take work and time, you know.”</p><p>“And striped thigh highs,” Johnny muttered just under his breath, managing to get a bite of his own eggs right before Ten elbowed him in the side.</p><p>Yuta had certainly caught what Johnny had muttered, but if his mom heard anything, she pretended not to. Probably for the best, really. Ten just continued to nibble on his toast, eventually pausing to pull himself to sit on the counter while Yuta and Johnny’s mom continued to play catch up. After a moment, he turned to Johnny (who was glancing at his phone on occasion like he was waiting for something), swinging his legs as he looked at him.</p><p>“Did you talk to the Im-Chaes about her coming? Like she won’t be part of the Secret Santa thing, but..” he started and Johnny nodded.</p><p>“Yeah. Double checking to be sure, but they’re not the ones to go back on their word,” he answered just a moment before his phone started ringing in his hand. “Right, I have to go take this real quick and I have some errands to run. Do we need anything from the store?”</p><p>Ten pouted slightly, the swinging of his feet coming to a stop, “I’ll text you a list.”</p><p>Johnny answered his phone, giving Ten a quick smile before leaving the kitchen and heading to another room to carry out his conversation. As much as Ten might have been curious, he also wasn’t about to spy, instead turning his attention to making sure the cats had enough food and water to not put up a huge fuss while he was busy wrapping Yoonoh’s gift (did he have extra glitter? God, he hoped so) and a few extra things for Johnny.</p><p>Yuta and Mrs. Suh had started a pleasant conversation of their own, catching up on what he overheard was almost two years worth of nonsense, including the detailed buildup to Yuta’s current romantic predicament. Not needing to listen to it again, he set up in the living room (damn it, Johnny was in their bedroom and that’s where Ten’s stash of annoying craft materials was stored, so he’d have to wrap Yoonoh’s gift without an annoying twist) to wrap everything he could (but not the ring. There was a plan here, and Yuta needed to see it since he was one of the main co-conspirators, even if he and Johnny had been roommates for years and this was a massive secret to keep).</p><p>Well, if he couldn’t coat Yoonoh in a flurry of glitter, then he was just going to have to inconvenience him some other way, and about six layers of wrapping paper and a note that says the contents are fragile would have to do. At some point, when he was working on layer two, Johnny walked in to give him a kiss before leaving to run his errands. Ten stopped him at the door before he left to wrap a scarf around his neck and to steal another kiss before sending him on his way, watching him from an open door until it was far too chilly to keep it open.</p><p>When he returned to his living room setup, Yuta and Mrs. Suh had migrated to the living room, still chatting amongst themselves. He just continued to wrap an obnoxious number of layers of paper around the lava lamp.</p><p>After a minute, Yuta looked at him. “So, you got the ring?”</p><p>Ten froze midway through taping the present, looking up at them and giving a short nod. “Yeah. I picked it up yesterday from Serendipity. Those two seemed thrilled by the way.”</p><p>“Well, yeah. They’re like <i>the</i> jewelers for gay couples. We still don’t know if they’re married or not, but Jimin was wearing a ring last time I was in and Taehyung seemed awfully taken by him.”</p><p>“But when I asked them, they both just laughed,” Ten sighed, standing up and fetching the ring from its hiding place on the mantle. “They’re like a cryptid relationship. Are they a couple or are they just friends?”</p><p>“Queerbaiting in real life, I swear to god,” Yuta groaned, looking a bit exasperated before seeing the ring box and immediately doing grabby hands in its direction. “Lemme see!” Johnny’s mom perked up at that as well, leaning in when Yuta was handed the now open box that displayed a gold ring with a wide band, several diamonds arranged in a diagonal pattern with a single amethyst stone set in the middle of it. “Y’know, when you said you were getting something with gold and amethyst, my first thought was the Lakers, which isn’t even his favorite basketball team, by the way. I asked. But this is pretty classy,” he announced, handing the box back over.</p><p>Johnny’s mom beamed, “My future son-in-law has good taste.”</p><p>“He hasn’t said yes, yet,” Ten reminded, returning the ring back to its spot.</p><p>“Did he tell you how he’s gonna do it? Like the whole Christmas party gang is in on it.”</p><p>She shook her head, a little smile curling the corners of her lips, “Let it be a surprise for me, too.”</p><p>Ten nodded, feeling a swell of anxiety in the pit of his stomach.</p><p>It was dark before Johnny came home, but that was mostly to blame on winter making the days shorter. He shuffled in through the door, shuddering hard as he knocked the snow from his boots, his arms loaded with bags of presents and groceries (say what you will, but New York was FREEZING this time of year, and Johnny wasn’t the type to make more than one trip to the car on a good day). Ten had finished wrapping things and had moved to sit on the couch with Yuta and Johnny’s mom, all tucked under blankets with warm drinks (Yuta’s might have been a little warmer, with a large shot of whiskey poured into his hot chocolate) while they watched Krampus.</p><p>Upon hearing the door, Ten wiggled out from under the covers, still wearing an oversized sweatshirt and a pair of shorts (not that you could much tell what was under the shirt), to see if he could possibly help carry things further into the house. Johnny accepted, preoccupied with removing his boots as Ten started taking the bags from him, moving the groceries into the kitchen and unloading the bags, keeping what he guessed was for dinner on the counter. Honestly, he would be fine with just some ramyeon.</p><p>He put the kettle on, fetching Johnny’s favorite cup and nearly dropping it when two frozen hands slid up his sweatshirt and an icy kiss was placed on his cheek. He yelped, swatting back at his boyfriend. “Why would you do that?” he whined. “I was all nice and warm!”</p><p>“Mmm… You are.” He paused, leaning down to nuzzle his face into Ten’s neck.</p><p>A moment passed, with Ten trying not to disturb Johnny’s outpouring of affection while he made him something hot to drink. “Yuta spiked his drink, so I’m guessing he might be staying the night.”</p><p>Johnny hummed and pulled himself away, “You’re probably right.”</p><p>They’d made do with a quick dinner that Johnny had let Ten help him cook, watching a movie as they ate (They’d decided on Shazam, because it’s OBVIOUSLY a Christmas movie. It takes place during Christmas. There are Christmas trees. Santa shows up. Johnny can and will defend this at any given moment).</p><p>As they’d predicted, Yuta had decided on staying the night, borrowing a shirt from Johnny (which was met with complaints that he’d soon run out of shirts with the way that Ten and Yuta kept borrowing them) and taking over Ten’s side of the bed (which Ten complained about before realizing he would be in the middle, which was going to be the warmest spot on the bed).</p><p>“‘M gonna talk to Mark tomorrow,” Yuta mumbled from under the blankets and Ten reached out to pat his shoulder before making himself comfortable (or as comfortable as he could be when he wasn’t on his side of the bed.</p><p>Sleep didn’t come easily, and he suspected it wouldn’t until after the party, the nerves building and keeping him on edge until the sound of Johnny’s soft snoring finally put him to sleep.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Day 4: Queerly An Issue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The day before the Christmas party presents its own set of issues...</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ten awoke to a nearly empty bed.</p>
<p>Yuta was no longer hogging his spot, instead curled up at the foot of the bed while the cats slept where Yuta had been. Under the blankets, even. He grumbled to himself, reaching over to the nightstand to blindly grope for his phone, not ready to face the world just yet and so he occupied himself with social media. Scrolling through his sister's instagram, he recognized some of the buildings in the background of her latest post, shooting upright to quickly dial her number.</p>
<p>The phone rang for a while before he could hear her voice.</p>
<p>"P'Ten?"</p>
<p>"You didn't tell me you were in New York!" he whined, loud enough that it caused Yuta to startle at the foot of the bed.</p>
<p>"Because it's for <i>work</i>. I've barely had any time to myself. In fact, I can't talk long.” He could hear the exhaustion in her voice and guessed she had probably been working hard for a show.</p>
<p>“Do you think… Do you think maybe you could come visit for Christmas, Tern? I haven’t seen you in a long time.” A year and a half, to be exact, back when he and Johnny had made a trip to Thailand for two weeks. They hadn’t been able to see each other for that long before work called her away. She was doing great things in the design world, and he was proud of her, but sometimes he wished he could actually spend time with her like they used to. </p>
<p>There was a long silence, the only sound filling it being the sound of flipping pages, probably from a planner. “I might have some time, but I can’t promise anything.”</p>
<p>He frowned a little, “What about a call?”</p>
<p>She hummed, clicking her tongue, “I can do a call, yeah. Text me and we’ll come up with a plan.”</p>
<p>It only did so much to make him feel better, sighing out an okay before they said their goodbyes and the call ended. Yuta was now awake, wiggling his way onto Johnny’s side, all bundled in blankets to keep the chill of the room away. He wasn’t about to sit up and give Ten a hug, but he did reach up to pat his shoulder.</p>
<p>“Tell me about it,” he yawned, trying (and succeeding) to push Ten to lay down again.</p>
<p>Ten stared at the ceiling a moment before speaking, “I just… Thought for a moment that maybe I could see some of my family, too. She’s so busy, though.”</p>
<p>Yuta hummed and threw an arm around him, “I’m not the best replacement, but I’m here.”</p>
<p>“Yeah. You are.”</p>
<p>There was a long moment where they just stayed like that, Yuta looking like he was about to drift off at any given moment and a hand working its way to play with Ten’s soft, dark hair.</p>
<p>“You know, Tennie... Tomorrow, you’re gonna come home with a fiance,” he hummed, “You’re gonna be so happy and I can’t wait. And Johnny’s going to cry.”</p>
<p>Ten chuckled softly, “And just two weeks ago, you were telling me that maybe the Christmas party wasn’t the best time and place for something like this.”</p>
<p>“Well, I still think it’ll put pressure on him to say yes, but I know there’s no talking you out of this. Your mind’s been made up,” Yuta mumbled, pressing a kiss to Ten’s temple. “Come on. We gotta eat and do things.”</p>
<p>With a grumble, Ten gave in, climbing out of bed with as much care to not disturb the cats as humanly possible. Yuta sighed and finally sat up, shuddering slightly. Ten took a moment to stretch, walking towards the shared closet to find some warm clothes for himself and something that would fit Yuta. He tossed a sweater at him before getting dressed himself.</p>
<p>Johnny and his mom were in the living room, talking quietly while Johnny wrapped presents. He laughed, a faint pink tainting his cheeks that only deepened when Ten walked in, striding over and leaning down to drop a kiss on his lips.</p>
<p>“Morning, baby,” he hummed, “What’s the plan for today?”</p>
<p>There was a pause as Johnny carefully taped down the wrapping paper he was holding in place. “Mom wants to see where you and I work, so I figured we can go to your cafe for coffee and then mine for lunch, if you want. And then we made cookie dough.” He paused a moment. “You’re only allowed to decorate them, though.”</p>
<p>A sigh came from the entryway to the living room, Yuta stepping in. “I can ask Mark to meet us for lunch, too.” Ten and Johnny both turned to look at him and he held up his hands. “Where he and I can talk about things.”</p>
<p>“And you can ask him to be your boyfriend rather than your holiday hookup?” Johnny questioned, a brow raised.</p>
<p>There was a long sigh, with Yuta slumping slightly as he dropped onto the couch. “That was last year. This year, I’m hoping for something different.”</p>
<p>Because, of course, the Im-Chae Christmas party of last year had been a dramatic affair. It had been the first year that Mark had brought along any of his college friends. He’d been told he could the year before, but had kindly refused because his friend group wasn’t quite as familiar with the chaos that came with the staff of the two cafes at the time but Donghyuck had still managed an invite on his own. After Jeno and Jaemin had snuck off on their own and Donghyuck’s terrible gift to Changkyun, Mark and Yuta had wound up going home together. It was the moment that could be pinpointed as what started to shift their relationship.</p>
<p>This year would be different for several reasons.</p>
<p>Firstly, Donghyuck’s secret santa had been rigged. After two years of horrible gag gifts, Changkyun had decided that the best sort of revenge would be to make sure the name he drew was of someone he wanted to impress. And so Taeil (who had started college a little later due to family circumstances and that is how the pair had met) was invited to the gathering. According to Mark, Donghyuck stressed about what to get for his crush’s present, but he did eventually come up with something.</p>
<p>Secondly, Hyunwoo and Kihyun wouldn’t be there. They were regulars at the party, so it would be weird without the pair of them there. Jooheon and Minhyuk still would be there, luckily. Otherwise, Ten was pretty sure Changkyun would have cancelled the party altogether.</p>
<p>Thirdly, just about everyone going to the party (save for a few who had a tendency to spill whatever news they heard) knew of Ten’s plan to propose. Yuta had been there just about every step of the way, which he was glad for, because Ten had a tendency to spiral when he considered that maybe Johnny would say no.</p>
<p>But that was an issue for the next day.</p>
<p>Today, they were going to their workplaces as guests rather than employees.</p>
<p>When the time was decided, Ten bundled up in his thick winter coat, a favorite scarf and a pair of matching gloves. He removed Johnny’s coat from its hook and held it up for him to slip into. It caused some weird positioning, but Johnny eventually was able to shrug it onto his shoulders so that Ten could more easily zip it before he reached into the pockets to fish out Johnny’s favorite pair of fleece-lined gloves, his own gloved hand finding a box inside the right pocket.</p>
<p>“What’s this?” he murmured, confusion lacing his expression while Johnny’s face drained of its color.</p>
<p>“Earrings. For my mom. Just leave them there,” Johnny whispered, his hands over Ten’s wrist to keep him from fishing anything out from within his pockets.</p>
<p>“Fine,” Ten answered, grabbing a hold of Johnny’s coat as he stood on the tips of his toes.</p>
<p>Yuta snorted as he pushed past them, grabbing his own coat as well as Johnny’s mom’s so that they could all finish getting ready to go out. Ten lowered himself to stand flat on his feet before pulling on his boots, much to his boyfriend’s dismay.</p>
<p>After everyone had bundled up appropriately to face the winter’s chill (Johnny had tugged a beanie onto Ten’s head, despite the huff that was given in response, and wound a scarf around his neck because apparently the coat and gloves weren’t anywhere near enough), they had packed into Johnny’s car (because he was one of the only people who would have a car in New York of all places) and they made their way to Décalcomanie Maid Cafe.</p>
<p>The cafe had been decorated for the holidays, warm white lights and faux greenery with red ribbons hung in the windows, and just about all the employees were wearing some kind of santa dress or outfit. He could easily pick out Dodo and Dior (Or those were their stage names. Out of drag, they were known as Hyungwon and Minhyuk) as they milled past the windows with trays of warm drinks for the few customers who had made it out in the freezing weather. Ten’s favorite part was the large tree in the corner, dotted with ornaments of past outfit themes and pictures of the employees in their best dresses as well as some gold and pink baubles to brighten it all up. Even the coffee counter had been decorated with ribbons and garland.</p>
<p>Ten sighed and opened the door car door, helping Yuta and Johnny’s mom out of the car and only laughing a little when Johnny slipped on a patch of ice on the pavement before going to help him collect his bearings. Yuta offered Mrs. Suh his arm as they entered the cafe while Johnny and Ten followed behind.</p>
<p>Si Cheng was the one to greet them at the door, wearing a longer dress than some of the others with his blonde wig pulled into a braided bun, a red and green plaid headband finishing the look. His make-up was always understated, which Ten always appreciated, and he just looked so damn <i>cute</i> all the time. They were seated near one of the large windows, Yuta looking out at the street through the frosted glass from where he sat.</p>
<p>Hyungwon was their server, though Johnny had stopped by the counter to see Jaemin (they were brothers in their love of coffee, though the amount of coffee Jaemin consumed on an average day was alarming).</p>
<p>“Ah, Ten,” Hyungwon drawled, tapping a manicured finger on his lip, “Missing this place already?”</p>
<p>“I wanted to see where they both worked,” Mrs. Suh piped up, a smile on her face as she took in Hyungwon’s appearance. Of course he was wearing heeled boots, making him even taller than his original 6 foot height and his skirt only reaching mid-thigh (though it was ruffled to hell and back). His wig had been left loose to fall in soft curls to the middle of his back.</p>
<p>He offered her a smile, “Ah, so you’re going to be at my Christmas party this year. If we’d known sooner, we’d have included you in the secret santa nonsense, but I hope you still enjoy yourself. This year is going to be memorable.”</p>
<p>Johnny slid into his seat beside Ten, one hand coming to rest on his knee, his thumb drawing soft circles against it. “Because it’s the first time it’s officially an Im-Chae Christmas party?”</p>
<p>Hyungwon returned to a deadpan expression, “Yes, because the legal aspect of my relationship is the important part.”</p>
<p>“If you don’t mind my asking,” Johnny’s mom began, “Why did you settle on Im-Chae and not Chae-Im?”</p>
<p>There was a glint of mischief that tinted Hyungwon’s expression, “Because my husband always comes first.”</p>
<p>The joke was not lost on most of the people at the table, each of them trying to keep their cool and not laugh. Yuta’s face scrunched a little as he focused even harder out the window, holding his breath. Johnny’s grip on Ten’s knee tightened ever so slightly while Ten looked towards the ceiling, biting his lips together.</p>
<p>Satisfied with himself, Hyungwon leaned against the table, “What can I get for you?”</p>
<p>Despite the fact that Ten was the one employed at Décalcomanie, Johnny was far more familiar with the coffee menu. Yuta had ordered a cappuccino while Ten had gotten a mocha and Johnny and his mom had both ordered some highly caffeinated drink that Jaemin always made specially for him. Minhyuk and Kun had stopped at the table to say their hellos before going back to work.</p>
<p>At some point, Yuta had said that Mark would meet them at Mr. Boss Muscle cafe for lunch and the two would have a separate table to talk things out.</p>
<p>They decided to go shopping after the cafe. It wasn’t much, just looking around at the few items still in the shops. No one had really eaten much for breakfast, and so the trip to Mr. Boss didn’t wait for very long, but it did seem as though Johnny was stalling in taking his mom there.</p>
<p>In comparison to Décalcomanie, Mr. Boss was not decorated nearly as much. There were still lights and a single tree, but it was missing the brightly colored decor of ribbons and garlands to really make everything stand out. The tree had a mixture of some bright red balls and some incredibly muscular looking mermen ornaments that Johnny had come home one night cackling over. It was nice, just incomplete.</p>
<p>This time, they had been greeted by the adonis known as Lee Hoseok (Both Ten and Johnny had admitted to finding him outrageously attractive, but Johnny had the privilege of working with the man and Ten wondered how he managed to keep his cool at all with him at close range). Their table was closer to the tree this time, and Johnny amused himself by pointing out the different mermen on the tree.</p>
<p>Yuta had gotten a table next to them, looking towards the window and lighting up when the door chimed, Mark walking over to the table to sit across from him.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Mark hadn’t come alone, Donghyuck trailing behind him.</p>
<p>Johnny waved him over, motioning at the empty seat across from him. “Hyuck! Good to see you. Come meet my mom.”</p>
<p>Raising an eyebrow in suspicion, Donghyuck took the seat that was offered. “What’s going on?”</p>
<p>“Yuta is going to talk to Mark about feelings and we can’t interrupt,” Ten answered, curiously looking at Johnny’s mom on occasion as she observed them. “Why did you tag along?”</p>
<p>Donghyuck shrugged. “Mark said he was meeting someone for lunch and I figured I might get lunch out of it.”</p>
<p>“If we buy you food, will you not interrupt them?” Johnny whispered, leaning over the table a little.</p>
<p>Leaning in as well, Donghyuck replied, “I make no promises.”</p>
<p>And that was what they would have to settle for.</p>
<p>Changkyun was their server this time, though Matthew grinned and waved as he went about helping Yuk Hei and Namjoon, two of the newer employees (both had transferred from Décalcomanie. Sometimes it was nice that they shared the same CEO). Ten smiled at him, commenting something about how they had just seen his husband an hour or two back and Changkyun had smiled to himself before their order was placed.</p>
<p>“When are you two gonna tie the knot?” Donghyuck asked, both suddenly and a bit too loudly for their liking.</p>
<p>“We’ve talked about it a lot,” Ten answered, Johnny’s hand moving to cover his on the table. “Soon, maybe.”</p>
<p>“Soon,” Johnny agreed, removing his hand from Ten’s a moment to tilt his chin so he could kiss him lightly on the lips. “Very soon.”</p>
<p>Donghyuck snickered to himself after making a slight gagging noise and turned to Johnny’s mom. “They’re like this every time I see them. So gross.”</p>
<p>She laughed softly, “I think it’s sweet.”</p>
<p>“I mean.. You have to say that, right? You’re Johnny-than’s mom and those two are like.. Joined at the hip or something.”</p>
<p>“Dating,” Ten sighed, “The word you’re looking for is dating.”</p>
<p>“Right.” Donghyuck paused to take a sip of his drink, “So which of you two is the most comfortable in the relationship?”</p>
<p>Ten and Johnny looked to each other for a moment before shrugging.</p>
<p>“Yuta,” Johnny shrugged, “Thought that was obvious.”</p>
<p>“Huh.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was quiet for a moment, Ten making polite conversation with Mrs. Suh over their lunch, Donghyuck occasionally popping into it to say something witty. It was nice. At least until Mark spoke perhaps a little too loudly from the table next to them.</p>
<p>“Dude, just tell me if you wanna hook up again!”</p>
<p>Yuta looked something between shocked and embarrassed for a moment before responding just as loudly. “I want to hook up with you! Exclusively! For the rest of my goddamn life! Or at the very least the next five fucking years.”</p>
<p>A long silence filled the cafe before Mark yelped out a “WHAT?” and Donghyuck, obviously amused by the whole situation, had nearly fallen out of his chair, shrieking in laughter.</p>
<p>Ten covered his mouth, shaking a bit in quiet laughter as Yuta spoke again.</p>
<p>“I want to <i>date</i> you. Can we maybe date and see where it goes?” Yuta glanced up at Mark, but his focus was primarily on his hands that were folded on the table.</p>
<p>“Wait, you’re serious?” When Yuta didn’t respond, Mark looked to the others for reassurance. When no answer came from them, he turned back to Yuta. “Oppa, are you being serious?” The response came as a tiny nod. “Why didn’t you just ask before?”</p>
<p>“Honestly, I thought it was obvious.”</p>
<p>“Not even a little.”</p>
<p>There was a sort of ease that came over them after that. Donghyuck’s giggles slowly faded out, though he pulled out his phone to relay the information to the members of the Tired College Student group chat (Which Taeil was a part off, according to Mark, though he tended to send memes and random gifs to add to the conversation).</p>
<p>After that, though, lunch was a quiet affair, with Yuta and Mark paying their bill and leaving soon after.</p>
<p>“There went my ride,” muttered Donghyuck as he watched them leave. “Guess I’ll go visit Jaemin until Jeno shows up to walk him home.” He shrugged after a moment. “Thanks for the food, I guess?”</p>
<p>Johnny shrugged, “See ya at the party tomorrow, Hyuck.”</p>
<p>There was a nervous laugh, “Yeah, that. See you all then.” He took a final bite of his food before leaving.</p>
<p>“He seems like a nice kid,” Johnny’s mom hummed.</p>
<p>Johnny shrugged, “He is. He just gives terrible presents for secret santa.”</p>
<p>She nodded before grinning almost a little too mischievously for Ten’s liking. “So you’re thinking about getting married soon?” Johnny almost choked on his drink at that and Ten felt the color just about drain from his face while she laughed to herself.</p>
<p>Ten scratched his cheek, trying not to seem nearly as thrown as he was, letting out a strained laugh.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The conversation was easily dropped, nothing being said for a time as they finished their food. Johnny had paid for their lunches (despite Ten’s adamance that he would pay for himself) before they carefully made their way back to the car.</p>
<p>As soon as they were home, Ten changed into his favorite pair of sweatpants, keeping on the oversized sweater he’d worn out and throwing on an apron to help the Suhs with their Christmas cookies. Luckily, the cookie dough had already been made, and he hadn’t been forced to do… whatever it was he did last time (Johnny had been appalled by the glutenous mess that he had managed to make, but had still eaten a couple of the horrendous things just to make Ten feel better about the situation).</p>
<p>He sat down at the kitchen table, watching as Johnny’s mom scolded him for rolling the dough too thick. After a moment, she motioned Ten over to help cut out the shapes and move them to the lined baking tray.</p>
<p>At some point, while she was busy putting the trays into the oven, Ten had taken a pinch of powdered sugar and flicked it at Johnny, which had turned into an all-out war (involving several colors of royal icing when it progressed into their decorating time) until they were both sugary messes. Ten had managed to smear a bright red streak of frosting across Johnny’s forehead, while his own face was covered in little white puffs of sugar and green and red smears on his cheeks. The fluffy white sweater he was wearing was in danger of being stained by the food coloring, but trying to get that out would have to wait, as Mrs. Suh had them cleaning up their playful mess before they could clean themselves up.</p>
<p>They’d showered together (though both of them kept reminding each other that there was company just in the other room, and they couldn’t take too long… Even if the kisses were oh so sweet and Johnny was all hands at times), dressing in pajamas and reheating some leftovers for dinner before settling on watching Jurassic World (It takes place over Christmas time! It’s obviously a holiday film!).</p>
<p>Johnny was the most invested in the film, maybe getting a little too excited about the raptors. His left arm was lazily draped around Ten, whose attention had turned to playing with the large hand that was resting on his chest. Unintentionally, he found himself focused on his ring finger, lightly kissing it. In about twenty-four hours time, he hoped to have a ring on that finger. Just the thought was making him antsy, and he could tell he wasn’t going to sleep too well that night.</p>
<p>When the movie ended, he realized just how focused he had been on… not the dinosaurs. Very much not the dinosaurs. Johnny had, at some point, maneuvered his hand to lace his fingers with Ten’s, giving it a light squeeze (though his attention was primarily on the raptors, despite his complaints about how they should have feathers. I mean, to be honest, he was entirely right, but Ten’s focus was on the fit of Johnny’s fingers with his own).</p>
<p>After some time, Johnny said something about going to bed and Ten begrudgingly pulled himself away.</p>
<p>“You go to bed, first,” he grumbled, “I’ve got one more thing to wrap and you’re not allowed to see it.”</p>
<p>Johnny frowned slightly, giving him a quick kiss on the forehead. “Okay, baby, but don’t take long or the cats will take over your side of the bed.”</p>
<p>Ten tilted his head to look up at him, with Johnny almost immediately leaning down again for a kiss. After a minute, Ten gave him a playful shove. “I’ll be right in. Go to bed.”</p>
<p>Johnny sighed, pulling himself away from him and giving his mom a goodnight kiss on the cheek before heading off to bed. Ten waited almost a full minute before sliding off the couch to grab the hidden roll of wrapping paper from under it. It was something he hadn’t used for any of the presents beneath the tree, so maybe Johnny wouldn’t assume the gift was for him. He’d printed the tag a week prior so that Johnny couldn’t match the handwriting, too.</p>
<p>He collected scissors, tape and the ring box from its hiding place, all while Johnny’s mom watched in curiosity as he took the ring from its place in the box, setting it aside to wrap the box by itself.</p>
<p>“You made sure the size is right?” she asked softly, and he nodded.</p>
<p>“We looked at rings before and got sized and I made a note of it.”</p>
<p>She nodded, looking a bit like she would doze off any second. “Good.” A moment passed in silence, Ten fixing the label to the box before she spoke again. “Thank you, by the way. For setting things up so I could be here for this.”</p>
<p>He looked up with a small smile, double checking the newly wrapped box. “I couldn’t ask to marry him before meeting you,” he answered with a noncommittal shrug. “I’m just about done. Go to bed. Tomorrow is  going to be a big day.” He stood up, grabbing the little box and the ring, slipping them into the pocket of his oversized coat and flicking off the switches as he walked through the apartment, waiting until Johnny’s mom was in her room before flicking off the hall light and falling into bed. Johnny threw an arm around him when he had made his way under the covers, burying his face in Ten’s hair with a soft grumble.</p>
<p>Sleep may not have come easy that night for Ten, but eventually exhaustion wore him down and he drifted off.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for reading! If you want, you can follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/yoongusamoongus">twitter</a> for random updates and snippets of whatever I'm writing every Wednesday</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Day 5: The Party</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Finally! The Christmas party!</p><p>Next chapter is the end of the official storyline and then there will be three epilogues.</p><p>Thank you for taking the time to read this!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The morning of the Christmas party was a normal Christmas Eve at first glance.</p><p>Johnny had been the one to wake up first, pulling Ten in closer, his face buried in his shoulder as he pressed little kisses against it. It had woken Ten, but he’d kept his eyes closed and pretended to sleep a little longer as Johnny whispered how much he loved him like it was a prayer of his devotion.</p><p>God, he was in love. Like stupid, gross, mushy feelings kind of love.</p><p>And today was the day he’d ask probably the most important question he would ever ask in his life. He only planned to ask it one time, and the man who had moved to pressing kisses to whatever parts of his face he could reach was the one he planned to spend the rest of his life with.</p><p>“I know you’re awake,” Johnny muttered, kissing the shell of his ear, “We should get out of bed.”</p><p>Lazily lifting his head, Ten spotted not just one, but both cats curled up around their feet. “We can’t. The kids are comfy.”</p><p>“Five more minutes, then. But the Christmas party is today and.. I have a good feeling about it.”</p><p>Ten’s heart leapt into his throat at the comment. What if Ten hadn’t trusted the right people and someone had his plan slip to Johnny? That would ruin so much of what he planned on. Trying to keep his cool, he finally managed out an “Oh yeah?”.</p><p>“Yeah. Mom’s gonna have so much fun getting to know everyone.”</p><p>He let out a soft sigh, “Do we <i>have</i> to go to the party? I could stay in bed like this for the rest of my life.”</p><p>“Maybe starting tomorrow, baby,” Johnny hummed, kissing his cheek but Ten shook his head a little, pouting slightly.</p><p>“But tomorrow’s <i>Christmas</i>.”</p><p>Johnny let out a laugh before carefully getting out of bed, making sure to not disturb the cats on his way out. Ten maneuvered in the bed so that he could watch as his boyfriend got dressed, jokingly letting out a low whistle when he took off his shirt.</p><p>“How the hell did I get so lucky?” he sighed when Johnny cast a smile in his direction.</p><p>Johnny hummed a moment, pulling on a long-sleeved shirt. “You left an impression that no one could ever beat when we met.”</p><p>With a groan, Ten buried his face in the pillow. “How many times do I have to apologize for that before we just act like we met at a bar?”</p><p>“Because I could never forget the Alice who hit me in the face with a bag of used coffee grounds.”</p><p>“An <i>accident!</i> It’s not my fault you were standing so close, anyways!”</p><p>Johnny sighed and took a seat on the edge of the bed, turned towards Ten so he could run his fingers through his hair. “I love you and I love where we ended up, even if we started off at a dumpster.”</p><p>Ten tilted his head to look up at him, wide eyes blinking a few times (not because there were tears trying to well up in his eyes or anything. And <i>definitely</i> not because Johnny was the exact description of perfection and the way he was looking at him could only be described as pure love). He carefully pulled himself to kneel next to Johnny on the bed, grabbing his shirt and kissing him sweetly. One kiss became many, and eventually Ten lightly tapped his shoulder.</p><p>Johnny broke away reluctantly. “Right. Right, the party.”</p><p>With another kiss (and two disgruntled cats), Ten finally climbed out of bed to get dressed.</p><p>The day passed by quicker than they’d anticipated, and Ten could feel the nervous energy building as they went about their more mundane tasks. Well, not really so much mundane, they just weren’t the cause of the butterflies in his stomach.</p><p>Mrs. Suh had been watching the two of them like a hawk, which did nothing to help Ten’s nerves. Absolutely nothing.</p><p>When Johnny wasn’t checking his phone and making calls, he was wrapped around Ten and holding him close. At least until it was time to get ready for the party, at least. That’s when Ten excused himself from the kitchen (where they’d been sharing coffee and Christmas cookies and Johnny’s mom was sharing the wildest tales of his boyfriend’s childhood) to get ready.</p><p>In past years, he’d gone in drag, usually choosing a cute Christmas dress to stand out in the crowd of other drag performers, but the group invited had become quite varied and this was to be an important day. <i>The</i> most important day of his life up until now. Settling on a suit with a buttoned shirt (with the top two buttons undone because to showcase a few necklaces), he dressed and styled his hair (brushed back out of his eyes, thank you. It was simple and effective at making Johnny swoon) and did just a hint of makeup (waterproof, because he was sure he’d wind up crying). When he was done, he gave himself a once over in the mirror, giving his reflection a short nod of approval.</p><p>He walked back into the kitchen, leaning against the entryway. “How do I look?”</p><p>Johnny, having been in the middle of taking a drink of his coffee, choked when he saw him. “Jesus…”</p><p>“Baby, you can just call me Ten,” he joked, “But seriously, what do you think?”</p><p>“Good.. Great!” Johnny set his cup down and stood up, clearing his throat, “I need to get ready, too.” He ran his fingers through his dyed-blonde hair, the dark roots having grown about an inch. God, he was beautiful.</p><p>He’d left a moment, his mom going to get ready a moment later, leaving Ten to lazily stir at the last remaining dregs of his tea. It was cold by now, a slight film forming on the top. Not appealing in the slightest. After a moment, he put the mugs in the sink, covered up the cookies and went to check the pockets of his coat. Everything was still there, so he took the ring and slipped it into his suit pocket, patting it twice in some attempt to keep it hidden from his boyfriend.</p><p>No one really took that long to get ready, and by the time they were both done, Ten had set up the presents (One for Yoonoh and another for the hosts, though it was cleverly disguised as a present for his secret santa).</p><p>Mrs. Suh was the first to step out, wearing a nice sweater, a touch of makeup and some nice jeans.</p><p>“Don’t you look lovely,” he hummed, walking over and taking both her hands in his, “I really am glad you could be here for this.”</p><p>There was a sly smile in reply, “You act like it wasn’t you who set it all up to begin with.”</p><p>He gave a sheepish grin at that. And yeah, he’d spent weeks planning after he pulled Johnny’s name from the fishbowl (that was being used for some kind of decoration, though a handful of partygoers had tossed their keys in it, until Changkyun had unceremoniously dumped the contents on the floor so they could use it). He’d never met Johnny’s mom in person and had decided that it was about time they had. Planning had started on facebook messenger until he’d sent her some money for the trip and she had made plans for the visit with Johnny from there.</p><p>It had been worth it. Johnny had been so damn excited when he’d found out she was coming to visit.</p><p>Speaking of...</p><p>His heart caught in his throat when he saw Johnny in a dark suit, the button up shirt with three undone and his hair swept back (probably with his fingers and very little product). He was beautiful.</p><p>Yeah, Ten was the luckiest man alive.</p><p>“That’s it,” he sighed, walking over and sliding his hands around Johnny’s waist and resting his head on his chest, “We have to stay home. You expect us to leave when you look this good?”</p><p>Johnny laughed softly, smoothing his hands from Ten’s shoulders down his back. “What’s gotten into you? Come on, you love Im-Chae parties.”</p><p>“I know,” Ten mumbled, allowing his hands to slide down and rest on Johnny's backside, giving a playful squeeze before he wormed his way out of his arms to pull on his shoes. "No driving tonight. We get a cab."</p><p>Johnny chuckled, grabbing his shoes and coat and the bag with the presents, and then they were off.</p><p>The venue for the Christmas party was smaller than the previous year, with so many people choosing to go home for the holidays, but there were still about 30 partygoers this year who were either far too broke to actually go anywhere, or they had their families close enough that the Christmas Eve Extravaganza wasn’t too much of a stretch for them to get to.</p><p>Usually, there would be more people in drag attending the party, but the weather was far too cold unless you had on thick leggings of some variety, and most of those who did drag were the ones who had gone home for the holidays, and so there were only a handful this time around.</p><p>Yangyang was the first one to greet them as they hung up their coats while a thrilled Yuta ran over to Johnny’s mom, taking her with him to introduce her to the others, wearing something that could only be described as something straight out of that live-action Grinch film. Ten couldn’t help but laugh to himself as he fixed Yangyang’s peppermint stick tiara, noting that it had slipped just enough to throw off the balance of the rest of the drag he was wearing.</p><p>“Baby Yangyang, looking so cute,” he cooed, causing the young man to pout and smooth down the red velveteen dress.</p><p>“I thought you’d be in drag, too. You’re always in drag at these parties!” he groaned, having obviously had a drink or two.</p><p>Ten shrugged, Johnny stepped over to his side, pressing a kiss to the top of his head before going to put the presents in the pile with the others and very soon getting swept away by Taeyong and Dongyoung (the former of which winked at Ten quickly as they dragged him off).</p><p>He turned back to Yangyang before pulling the ring box out of his pocket. “I’m not wearing a dress because it’s fucking cold out and most of the ones I have don’t have pockets. Can you put this with the other gifts… please?”</p><p>Yangyang gasped softly, “Oh my god, I thought it was a joke when you told me!”</p><p>“Well it’s happening tonight,” he replied, absentmindedly patting the pocket the ring was in to make sure it was still there and breathing a sigh of relief when he could still feel it. Yangyang patted his shoulder before running off to the gift table.</p><p>The whole room had been decked out in holiday decor, with garland and lights that had accumulated over the years. The gift table was set next to a large Christmas tree, decorated in red and gold bulbs with warm white lights dotting the branches. There were snacks of all varieties, purchased mostly by the hosts (though everyone chipped in their fair share), and a table full of different beverages. There was no doubt that the egg nog was spiked and the bowl of punch smelled more or less like jungle juice at this point, which it probably was. He poured two cups of mulled wine, passing by Kun and Si Cheng (who were parked near the drink table to fend off anyone who was underage and to steer them back to the coffee and cocoa table) before finding Johnny in the other room surrounded by their friends.</p><p>He was seated between Yoongi, looking especially fantastic with a bobbed wig, light makeup, stiletto nails and a suit as he sprawled across a couch, and Yoonoh, who was wearing his usual hoodie and jeans. Leaning against Yoonoh was a very comfortable looking Taeyong, their fingers tightly laced. They’d been together since before Johnny and Ten had even met, and everyone had come to the conclusion that the two of them just decided that they were better off as boyfriends than as a married couple. If they were happy, that’s all that mattered. Next to them was Dongyoung, who everyone had suspected was a third in Yoonoh and Taeyong’s relationship, but since no one had confirmed it, no one really brought it up, even with the way Dongyoung’s hand rested high on Taeyong’s thigh.</p><p>Ten walked over and handed Johnny one of the cups of mulled wine, giving him a quick kiss and a wink before he went back to socializing and looking for the hosts.</p><p>There were the new kids doing a dance challenge game in a corner, bits of music starting and giving the boys enough time to show off their dance skills before it would abruptly cut off. Currently, the empty space reserved for the dancers was occupied by Jaemin and Donghyuk, while Jeno, Chenle, Jisung and Mark cheered them on (or maybe it was less cheering and more jeering). There were a few others standing around as well, and Ten waited for the song that was playing to end before approaching Donghyuck.</p><p>“Where’s your mystery man?” he asked, bringing the cup to his lips.</p><p>Donghyuck flushed slightly, checking his phone. A small smile seemed to light up his expression when he read a new text. “Almost here. He was at work a little longer than he expected to be.” Chaos was unleashed behind them as everyone scrambled to dance to the new song in a fit of giggles. “I’m gonna wait by the door. Come with?”</p><p>He gestured back to the venue’s entrance, following behind Donghyuck with an interest. “Are you nervous about him coming here?”</p><p>“I mean, yeah,” Donghyuck answered, fidgeting with his long sleeves. “These parties can be… a lot. And everyone is pretty intense. I don’t want to scare him off.”</p><p>“I can tone it down until later. But the second I’m down on one knee in front of Johnny, all bets are off.”</p><p>He snorted at that, “God, right. That’s happening tonight. Maybe Taeil shouldn’t be meeting everyone today?”</p><p>“You really like him, don’t you?”</p><p>There was a pause, then a nod, and then the door was being opened letting in a gust of cold air, before an unfamiliar man scrambled in, closing the door quickly behind him. He shuddered, powdery snow falling from him if it wasn’t already melting, looking up at Ten and then settling on Donghyuck, flashing him a rosy-cheeked smile.</p><p>“Made it,” he said quietly, taking off his hat and dusting little drops of water out of his hair, “Sorry I’m late.”</p><p>Donghyuck grinned back at him, “You made it before it got too crazy. This is Ten, he’s getting engaged tonight.”</p><p>Ten shot him a look, taking another sip of his wine with a disapproving noise. “You keep saying that and Johnny is going to know what’s happening before it’s time.” He looked to Taeil. “Forget what he just said. It’s nice to finally meet you.”</p><p>Taeil nodded, setting down a gift bag to take off his coat and scarf, Donghyuck passing them off to Ten to hang up, “It’s nice to meet you, too.”</p><p>“Come on, I’ll show you where to put that gift and we’ll get you something warm to drink, hyung.” Donghyuck announced, pulling Taeil by his sweater sleeve-covered hand and taking him to the tables, Kun watching Donghyuck like a hawk until Si Cheng drew his attention away with a gentle caress that was almost unnoticeable.</p><p>Finally, he managed to catch sight of the hosts. Hyungwon was talking to Mingyu and Jihoon (who Ten had met a couple of times but hadn’t really talked to as much), but Changkyun (or was it Sang-ah right now, as he was in a cute Christmas dress with a Santa cap attached to a headband) motioned for him to come closer. He followed, only stopped a few times by others. Jooheon and Minhyuk gave him massive hugs before walking with him to speak with Changkyun.</p><p>“I’m sad that you didn’t join us today,” Minhyuk… Dior sighed, “I always love dressing up with you”</p><p>Ten chuckled, “Dior, darling, as much as Wai Thai would have loved to join you, I’m afraid I can’t upstage anyone tonight.”</p><p>Changkyun snorted, “That’s never stopped you before, but maybe this is more about who you’d be upstaging.”</p><p>Jooheon shrugged, “Everything is just about ready to go, we’re just waiting on Donghyuck’s date.”</p><p>“Oh, he’s here,” Ten mused, taking a pointedly longer drink from his cup before nodding in the direction of the new kids’ corner, “Hyuck has this idea in his head that we’re going to scare the man off.”</p><p>There was a twitch of a smirk that played on Minhyuk’s lips, “Us? We’re the epitome of subtlety.”</p><p>Changkyun snorted, “In those platform heels, Minhyuk? I think not.”</p><p>Ten hummed, lips against the rim of his cup as he looked around one more time, finding his hopeful mother-in-law talking to the two jewelers that Ten had purchased the ring from, as well as Lee Hoseok (who couldn’t possibly have found a sweater any tighter, the way it clung to his muscles. Christ, Ten had to look away). Jimin caught his eye and gave a knowing smirk.</p><p>“What are those two doing here?” he asked after a pause.</p><p>Changkyun shrugged, “Hyungwon and I are friends with them. They invited us to play tennis after the wedding.”</p><p>“And do you know if they’re married?”</p><p>“We do.”</p><p>There was a long, expectant pause, Ten turning to him and raising a brow, “And..?”</p><p>“Not telling. You’ll just have to find out on your own.”</p><p>For a while, everyone just mingled. Ten had managed to talk to everyone at the party and had moved from mulled wine to hot chocolate (which Johnny had brought to him and Ten had thanked him by swiping his nose with some whipped cream and grinning a little brighter when Johnny had crossed his eyes to look at it).</p><p>And then it was time. Everyone found a place to sit (Ten had perched himself on Johnny’s lap, an arm wrapped around him to hold himself steady) as the hosts handed out presents one at a time. Yoonoh had been delighted by the lava lamp, making a comment about how he’d needed a new one (Johnny had nuzzled his face into Ten’s neck, whispering a thank you at that). Chenle had gotten several DIY kits, both him and Jisung sharing delighted looks at what all they could make with it all, their grins only getting bigger when Jisung opened up a box full of crafting supplies. Ten opened his box to reveal several cat hats and costumes, sheer excitement hitting when he saw the little Christmas sweaters.</p><p>Taeil opened his gift next. It was an envelope, opened to reveal two tickets to a classical concert. Donghyuck watched with a quiet interest as he looked them over.</p><p>“Two,” he said softly, before looking up and locking eyes with the suddenly nervous Donghyuck, “Will you go with me?”</p><p>Maybe it was just the infectious smile or the deep blush, but Ten could almost feel it when Donghyuck’s heart flipped at the question.</p><p>“Of course, hyung.”</p><p>One major event of the night down.</p><p>Most of the other gifts were little things such as books, blankets and little handmade things, though Changkyun’s ‘not a bong’ (which was definitely from Yoonoh) was probably one of the funnier reveals. Yuta wouldn’t show his gift, slamming the lid of the box closed when he’d seen the contents and hissing out a “Mom is here, you can’t do this!” (it was definitely inappropriate, Ten had later discovered, with a scrawled note to “have fun” taped to the top of a box of condoms).</p><p>Maybe the most curious reveal was Dongyoung’s. He’d opened a small box and clapped a hand over his mouth, looking with watery eyes between Yoonoh and Taeyong. It was a pair of ear cuffs with small sapphire studs embedded in the gold, looking oddly similar to the earrings both Taeyong and Yoonoh wore.</p><p>“You’re serious?” he asked softly, and Yoonoh had nodded, Taeyong giving him a tiny, reassuring smile. He’d very quickly put them on after that, Taeyong pulling himself away from his boyfriend’s side to help Dongyound with them.</p><p>No one asked, but the question was on the tip of everyones’ tongues.</p><p>And then it had continued once more, as though nothing odd had happened. The gifts were funnier this time around. There was a tiger print sweater with paws (for Jeno, though everyone immediately looked to a sheepish Soonyoung as the culprit), a fire extinguisher (for Jimin), a book simply titled <i>Dating for Dummies</i> (for Donghyuck, though it apparently had written commentary in the margins), and a block of concrete (for Soonyoung. No explanation for this was left on it or even directly told). Yuta had even taken a moment to make sure Johnny’s mother had something to open, which was a pair of lovely drop earrings that sparkled in even the low light of the venue. There had also been a box of jam donuts and two bags of something called Fire Department coffee for Jaemin, who leaned back in his seat, eating one while sipping at his coffee.</p><p>And then it was time.</p><p>The last box.</p><p>Ten could feel his heart pounding as Changkyun walked over, the tiny box in his hands as he brought it to Johnny. There was a tension in the air, with everyone now fully aware (save for Johnny) on what was going to happen.</p><p>Johnny moved his hand from its place on Ten’s waist as he took it, waiting for him to set down the box of cat hats on the floor. He slid his hands into the pockets of his suit jacket, grabbing the ring while Johnny tore off the paper and opened the empty box. He looked confused a moment, showing the box to everyone with a nervous laugh. He barely even recognized that Ten had gotten off his lap.</p><p>“Anyone wanna explain what’s going on?”</p><p>That’s when he caught sight of Ten standing in front of him.</p><p>“I guess I will.” Ten took a deep breath, his hands still in his pockets. “With as much as we’ve talked about this, you’d think I’d be a lot less nervous. But I guess that’s the effect you have on me. God, John, you make me feel so giddy with every kiss. I wake up every morning knowing that I’m the luckiest man on the planet because there you are. You’re my best friend, my home, the love of my goddamn life, and even if we met in the stupidest way possible, I wouldn’t change any of it if it means I can spend the rest of my life with you. So…” God, he was trembling, shaking as he got down on one knee. He looked up at Johnny, who looked like he was on the verge of tears, both hands covering his mouth. Ten pulled the ring from his pocket, holding it up. “Marry me?”</p><p>There was a weird feeling in his gut when Johnny laughed, reaching into his own pocket and pulling out a box of his own. He sniffled, opening it and holding it out as he wiped at his eyes, revealing a ring of his own. “I was going to ask you.”</p><p>Ten froze a little, looking to the ring before turning his focus back to Johnny’s teary smile. He could feel the prickle of tears in his own eyes, choking out an “Is that a yes?”. His answer came as a nod, and he practically launched himself to embrace and kiss his boyfriend - no <i>fiancé</i>. There were some shared tears and laughs, with Ten kissing Johnny’s knuckle before sliding the ring onto his finger.</p><p>Johnny pulled him back onto his lap, placing the ring on Ten’s finger before pulling him closer.</p><p>The party returned to the swing of things, with congratulations being passed to the newly engaged, though things were winding down. Taeyong and Yoonoh (and Dongyoung, who was always nearby) were among the first.</p><p>“God, I’m so glad I don’t have to keep that secret anymore,” Yoonoh sighed, “It was like I couldn’t be around either of you or I’d tell both of you.”</p><p>Johnny’s face went blank, “Wait you knew about his plan?”</p><p>“Almost everyone did,” Taeyong shrugged, “You should probably make some calls, Johnny.”</p><p>“Right.” He let out a dry laugh. “Well, I hope your engagement goes smoother than mine, if you’re even into that thing.”</p><p>There was a long, awkward pause, with Taeyong letting out a groan. “You didn’t tell Johnny?”</p><p>“I thought we were keeping things on the down-low for a while, Yong.” Yoonoh replied. Johnny gave an expectant look to his best friend. “Yong and I eloped for a tax break back in January. We have earrings instead of rings because we weren’t going to make a big deal out of it.”</p><p>Ten blinked a few times before making a face, “Wait, so then Dongyoung’s present… Was there another proposal tonight?”</p><p>“I mean they won’t let us both marry him,” Yoonoh mumbled, “But kind of? He’s been a part of this for two years and we love him and we like our futures better when we picture him in it. So yeah, I guess.”</p><p>“What the <i>fuck</i>, guys? I wasn’t even a witness!” Johnny whined.</p><p>Taeyong shook his head, “It was a last-minute thing. You were at work. You need to make calls right now, though.”</p><p>Johnny grumbled, reluctantly helping Ten off his lap, “I’ll be right back.”</p><p>Ten pouted a moment, flopping back into the chair while others came to congratulate him on his engagement before talking to other people to either discuss their gifts or say their farewells before leaving.</p><p>Minhyuk dropped onto his lap at some point, winding his arms around Ten with a big grin, “Who’s going to be your best mate for the wedding, Tennie?”</p><p>There was a pause as Ten tapped at his chin, “Yuta, if Johnny doesn’t get to him first. Since he’s played such a big role.”</p><p>Minhyuk huffed in faux disappointment, pulling back to look at him better, “Oh, I remember.” He let out a soft laugh. “I’m up next if Yuta doesn’t work out, darling, since I helped you get the job to begin with.”</p><p>Ten laughed and kissed his cheek, “Of course, love.”</p><p>There was a pause before Minhyuk laughed softly, “This feels like the beginning of the end, you know? Like everything’s going to change from here on out.”</p><p>“Might be true, but change isn’t always bad. And we might fall out of touch with each other, but you’ve still got me. I’m still your friend and I still love you.”</p><p>That seemed to help, and the only thing that removed him from Ten’s lap was Jooheon telling him that they were going to be needed for cleaning up the place. Ten got up and stretched, walking around to talk to the few stragglers that remained with the box of new things for his cats in his hands.</p><p>Jaemin was teasing Mark for getting him donuts of all things, which Mark retorted that Jaemin had said he liked them a few times. Yuta stood with them, his arms wrapped around Mark’s waist and his head resting on his shoulder. Chenle and Jisung were very tempted to open the DIY slime kit, though a combination of Jeno and Hoseok were preventing them from doing just that. It was calming, the way that chaos seemed to just take over in the absence of any kind of emotion.</p><p>Changkyun and Hyungwon were taking down decorations when he walked over to them, mostly to thank them for everything. Hyungwon was standing on a chair on the tips of his toes as he tried to take down the garlands while Changkyun looked at his husband appraisingly, a smirk on his lips.</p><p>“I hope I’m not interrupting, but… Honestly, thank you both for helping,” he called out.</p><p>Changkyun pulled his gaze away for only a moment, “Why are you still here? You two should be at home making Facebook posts and not leaving the bed for at least two days.”</p><p>“Two da-... I didn’t think either of you had that much stamina,” Ten teased.</p><p>“We don’t,” called out Hyungwon, dropping down another garland, which Changkyun ignored, “I sleep a lot and Kyun is a cuddler.” He dropped down from the chair, turning to look at Ten. “It was nice to be there for a proper engagement. But my husband is right. Why are you still here?”</p><p>Ten shrugged, “Johnny’s making phone calls and I don’t know where his mom ran off to.”</p><p>“Hmm, well he did have some pretty big plans,” Changkyun shrugged, twisting the long strands of his wig around his finger, “but please take that man home when he gets back.”</p><p>Ten fidgeted slightly, but it wasn’t long before Johnny came back, catching him around the middle.</p><p>“Thanks for the party, but we’ve gotta run,” he announced.</p><p>And that was that. Soon, Ten, Johnny and his mom were all in the back of a cab on the way back to the apartment.</p><p>Ten leaned on his fiancé, looking over the rings quietly. Both gold, both with little gemstones. His own ring was skinnier, with a larger stone in the center with smaller ones at the sides (ruby and white sapphire maybe?) than the ones in Johnny’s. It wouldn’t look out of place with his drag, which he must have put a lot of thought into. Because of course he did.</p><p>When they reached the apartment, everyone was tired and Ten decided that the cats could wear their little sweaters in the morning. They’d settled on sandwiches, showers and then sleep, though Ten almost forgot about his food while lazily scratching Leon behind the ears.</p><p>Johnny’s mom had excused herself before too long, and Ten had dropped the half-eaten turkey sandwich onto the plate. He’d finish it later.</p><p>Leaving the kitchen, he cast a glance over his shoulder, his fingers unbuttoning his suit jacket and two more of the buttons of his shirt. “Come to bed?”</p><p>They didn’t actually sleep much that night.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Day 6: Sweet Chaos</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Christmas Day!<br/>This is also the last chapter of the official storyline. The last three chapters are going to be epilogues, which will be set in different increments in their future. Also I'm working on the prequels to this story as well. Thank you so much for reading!</p><p>Author's Note: I know this took a long time to update, and I'm sorry! Things at work have gotten out of hand and I've hardly had any time to myself and even less time to actually write! So thank you for your patience!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was one thing to wake up early from a long night, but it was another thing entirely when it was because of knocking on the door and the incessant ringing of Johnny’s phone. He grumbled against his love’s bare shoulder, reaching over to the nightstand to grab the phone and answer it, blinking with bleary eyes as he looked at the screen, answering the call with a weary “hello?”.</p><p>The voice on the other end was familiar, but recognition went out the window with how tired he was. “Come get the door. I’m outside.”</p><p>The call ended abruptly, Ten putting down the phone and yawning before shaking Johnny awake. “Get the door, baby,” he grumbled out, “Someone’s here.”</p><p>Johnny was quick to wake up at that, getting out of bed and quickly pulling on some pants while Ten admired him lazily from the bed, a self-satisfied grin on his lips as he looked at the littering of marks across his chest until a shirt was pulled on to cover up his handiwork. “You’ll want to get some clothes on, babe.”</p><p>There was another grumble as Ten buried his face in Johnny’s pillow and pulled the blanket over his head, “Don’t wanna.”</p><p>“Suit yourself.” And with that, he left the room, Leon having gotten up to follow behind him, his collar jingling with every step.</p><p>Louis was calmly grooming himself on the blanket over his feet, letting out a confused chirp when Ten moved his feet from under him to begrudgingly pull himself out of bed, slipping on some shorts. As usual for most days, he gravitated to Johnny’s side of their shared closet, grabbing one of the band shirts and pulling it over his head before putting on his slippers.</p><p>Whomever had just arrived was talking with Johnny in the living room and when Ten looked down the hall towards the door to the apartment, he could see a long coat hung up and a pair of fashionable boots. He stopped first at the kitchen where Johnny’s mom was making french toast for breakfast to start some water boiling for his tea and Johnny’s fancy coffee, yawning as he measured out the coffee grounds for the french press before going to see who had stopped in on Christmas morning.</p><p>Whatever he was expecting, it wasn’t for Johnny to be standing there, talking with his little sister. He only managed to catch the tail end of the conversation.</p><p>“-didn’t expect him to propose, so it kind of threw things off. Did I at least call you before you were waiting in the snow?”</p><p>“I hadn’t left the hotel yet, so it wor-.”</p><p>Her words were cut off when Ten rushed over and threw his arms around her, letting out a laugh, “You’re here!”</p><p>Tern hugged him back for only a moment before pushing him away to swat at his shoulder, “You weren’t supposed to propose! He had this whole thing planned out and timed so that our parents could be a part of it, too!”</p><p>After the initial shock at her reactions, he gave a sheepish grin, “I just beat him to it.”</p><p>She sighed after a moment, “Well, congratulations.”</p><p>They talked more over breakfast, about anything and everything they possibly could. Johnny’s hand was laced comfortably with Ten’s as they spoke, his mother joining in the conversation to share mostly embarrassing stories.</p><p>It wasn’t too long before Tern had spoken about Johnny’s overturned plans.</p><p>She delicately covered his free hand with her own. “I’m sorry things fell apart last night,” she sighed, “I know how long you’d been planning the proposal.”</p><p>Curious, Ten turned to look at his fiancé, whose gaze turned to his half-full mug of coffee, the corners of his lips turned up in amusement. “How long, Johnny?”</p><p>Johnny carefully removed his hand from under Tern’s lifting the mug to his lips. “I started planning after last year’s Christmas party,” he muttered into the rim of the mug before taking a long drink of the now lukewarm brew. Ten could feel his expression turn to pure shock, the color draining from his face a bit. “And everything was going perfectly. I got the message my mom was coming to visit. Tern and I talked a lot. She was gonna be there and your parents were going to be on the phone with her, but…” He laughed to himself. “I didn’t think about how wonderfully impulsive you are.”</p><p>His mother laughed softly, “Ten was the one who helped me get here. I didn’t realize that he was bringing me here to ask for my blessing until he did.”</p><p>Ten gave a bashful look directed at some spot on the table that had managed to hold his interest, just so that he didn’t have to look Johnny in the eye. Curse his impulses sometimes.<br/>Johnny sighed, turning Ten’s face to look at him, “Hey… It’s okay. Honestly, if everything had gone to plan, I would have been worried. That’s not how we’ve ever worked.”</p><p>There was a soft laugh at that, “I think Yuta was trying to warn me about it all until like two weeks ago.”</p><p>Letting out a huff of laughter, Johnny pressed his lips to Ten’s forehead. “It’ll be a story to tell the kids, hmm? About their impulsive paw beating their dad to the punch.”</p><p>Tern pretended to gag, giving an offended look when Ten raised a middle finger, directing it at her as he pressed a soft kiss to Johnny’s lips before he stood and gathered the dishes, placing them in the sink and rinsing them off before Louis and Leon could get into the syrupy mess. They’d raise hell if they needed a bath.</p><p>It was at least another hour of conversation before Johnny stood up and stretched. “We have presents to open.” He swung his arms to try to usher everyone into the living room. “And then we start making dinner.</p><p>Ten huffed a little. “We can start cooking <i>now</i>. Presents don’t have to be in the morning.”</p><p>“Yeah, but we have matching sweaters to wear.” was the quick response.</p><p>There was no use arguing, especially since it was quickly becoming tradition to wear the sweaters the whole day, but this time there were more people. Hell, even Tern was there (and Ten was suddenly concerned with the fact that there was a distinct lack of gifts for her).</p><p>Johnny caught his nervous glance at Tern, determining the reason fairly easily. “Okay, we start cooking, first. But you’re not allowed in the kitchen. Spend time with your sister.”</p><p>Ten pouted slightly, earning a quick kiss, “But when mom and I have a moment, we’re opening those sweaters.”</p><p>The siblings were quickly ushered out of the kitchen, both of them taking a seat on the couch to discuss more things, Tern’s gaze locked on her phone for the most part. “Up for a call with Maa and Pbaa?” she asked suddenly, shifting on the couch to find better lighting. He moved closer on the couch, leaning in so that the camera could catch him, too, as she made the call.</p><p>Ten enjoyed the conversation, excitedly explaining the previous night’s events, and showing off the ring on his finger.</p><p>Johnny walked over at some point, giving a quick greeting in Thai to his future in-laws before pressing a quick kiss to the top of Ten’s head and walking back off to the kitchen.</p><p>Ten sighed after him, smiling to himself before turning back to the conversation at hand.</p><p>Overall, the call didn’t last very long and the time difference was to blame for that, but he was happy to have gotten to share the news, anyways. When it was done, Johnny poked his head into the room to check on them, walking over to the tree when he saw they were free, grabbing two boxes and handing one to Ten.</p><p>“Sweater time,” he hummed, tearing the paper off of his own box and pulling out an oversized sweater, the words <i>Make the Yuletide Gay</i> knitted into it. Ten snorted, unwrapping his own matching sweater and slipping it over his clothes. “Got the same size so you can stop stealing mine.”</p><p>Ten huffed slightly, “But then it won’t smell like you, baby.”</p><p>Johnny laughed, pulling on his own sweater over his shirt and rolling the sleeves up to his elbows. “Well, at least we’ll be able to trade them out.”</p><p>There was a soft laugh from Ten as he settled back on the couch, watching as Johnny made his way back to the kitchen.</p><p>Tern let out a low whistle, “Damn… Does he know how wrapped around his little finger you are?”</p><p>“No,” he answered, “and don’t you dare tell him.”</p><p>She gave him a mock salute in response, but her lips curled into a smirk.</p><p>They conversed some more, mostly in Thai but switching to English when Johnny and his mom entered the room. It was nice - wonderful, really. It had been so long since he and his sister had even just been in the same room. Even during his trip to Thailand to introduce Johnny to his family, she’d been too busy to really spend much time with him. He knew it probably wasn’t going to be much, but there was comfort in speaking his mother tongue with a member of his family.</p><p>Tern stayed for dinner, which he was glad for. They had it early, and she had to leave pretty soon afterwards, much to Ten’s disappointment.</p><p>“You’ll have to tell me if you like your gifts, Ten,” she hummed, giving her brother a hug and a kiss on each cheek, “And keep me in the loop while you’re planning the wedding.” Her eyes glimmered a moment as she thought of something. “Destination wedding in Thailan</p><p>“Or,” Johnny started, “we could stay there a couple weeks for the honeymoon.”</p><p>Ten shoved his arm lightly before taking his hand in his own, “<i>Maybe.</i>”</p><p>And then she left after another hug and a vaguely threatening “I’m watching you, Johnny”.</p><p>Johnny gave Ten’s hand a light squeeze. “You okay?”</p><p>Ten nodded and turned to look at him, lifting himself onto his toes to press a kiss to his cheek. “Wanna open some presents?”</p><p>“Only if the cats open theirs first.”</p><p>Humming to himself, Ten allowed himself to muse on the future. “Ever think about how it could be kids first and <i>then</i> cats some day?” Johnny froze in place a moment, eyes wide as he stared at his future husband. “I mean… if you want them.”</p><p>They had discussed the possibility of a family a handful of times during their relationship, always at Johnny’s prompting. It was something they both wanted at some point in their lives.</p><p>“Kids,” Johnny repeated, walking with Ten to the living room, where Johnny’s mom sat with a mug of coffee. “I mean, not now, obviously… But one day when we’re both doing really well for ourselves.”</p><p>“One day.”</p><p>Johnny sat on the couch, with Ten walking over to the Christmas tree to collect the handful of presents underneath, handing them out before taking his place pressed against Johnny’s side. Of course the cats had been spoiled with fancy treats and new toys and a brand new cat tree (since the cats had barrelled into the last one a few times while playing and it was held up by wall supports and wishes as it leaned a little too far to one side).</p><p>Ten had been delighted when he had unwrapped a new serger from Johnny, one that he’d been eyeing for a while but had always been too preoccupied with bills or the next show or Johnny’s gift to actually purchase it. His full attention turned to Johnny when he opened his gift, delighted in the way he softly breathed out a “no way” at the sight of a film camera that had been very carefully boxed up.</p><p>“Babe,” he started but was quickly stopped.</p><p>“It’s mostly from my parents. They adore you. Now you can go flex that photography degree,” Ten muttered, tucking himself more tightly to Johnny’s side, smiling to himself when a kiss was lightly planted on the top of his head.</p><p>Tern had left gifts for them near the tree, and a peek inside each glimmering silver back revealed make-up for Ten that he didn’t yet make enough to buy on his own, and several gaudy Hawaiian shirts for Johnny (whose price tags alone could probably have paid their bills for months. Damn those designer labels).</p><p>Johnny had gotten his mom a sweater to match theirs, though with only the pattern and none of the wording, while Ten had gotten her a necklace with two decorative amethyst charms hanging from a delicate gold chain.</p><p>She, on the other hand, had gotten them an almost empty photo album, the only picture inside being one from their online post when they’d announced they had moved in together, with Ten dangling a set of keys in front of him with a wide grin, Johnny’s arms wrapped around his middle and his chin resting on his shoulder.</p><p>“There’s going to be a picture from last night, too,” she hummed, “But it’s to fill with memories of your life together.”</p><p>Johnny let out a laugh - one of the ones he managed out as he held back tears - and flipped through the many empty pages. “Something to share with the kids in the future.”</p><p>Before they turned in for the night, they watched a couple of Christmas films before Mrs. Suh turned in for the night, having to catch a flight back to Chicago in the early morning. They’d wished her a good night, with Johnny lingering a while longer while Ten worked on packaging up the food, snacking on bits of cold meat as he did. When it was all done, he carefully stacked things into the kitchen sink, face down so that the cats couldn’t lick anything, having decided that the actual cleanup could wait. Johnny was going to drive her to the airport and Ten was determined to get a good farewell in, so he’d need to get a good night’s rest before then.</p><p>Turning off the lights around the apartment, he made his way back to their bedroom, changing into some comfortable pajamas and climbing into bed and dozing off halfway before he could feel the mattress dip under Johnny’s weight as he climbed in next to him, moving the cats out of the way as gently as he could. Almost as if it were in his nature, Ten sleepily wrapped himself around Johnny, their legs tangling together. A faint smile was on his lips as he was pulled tighter against him.</p><p>Both of them knew the morning would come all too fast, and that saying goodbye would be tough, but it wouldn’t be for forever. So yeah, tomorrow would be tough, but there would be many tough days ahead of them. So long as they had each other, they’d be okay, whatever the future held.</p><p>Which, first and foremost, would be planning a wedding.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Epilogue: The Best Maid Plans</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>So this is Johnny's point of view, going back to when he started planning. This is going to be the only part written in first person, and it's LONG.</p>
<p>Than you so much for reading!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I can’t tell you exactly when I knew that Ten was the <i>one</i>, but it really hit me hard one day as Ten clambered out of my bed one morning to get ready for work, pausing to give me a thousand kisses before scrambling to get his things. I couldn’t stop staring at him, with his frilled skirt and ruffled apron and thigh-high stockings, as he started on his makeup. He glanced over his shoulder at me, chuckling to himself a bit before he applied his rosy pink lipstick.</p>
<p>“You’re staring,” he hummed after he was satisfied, turning his head to the left and then the right to make sure that the wings of his eyeliner were evenly matched before he started to apply his fake lashes.</p>
<p>“It’s hard not to when you look the way you do,” I answered, having propped myself up on my elbows, “You’re incredible.”</p>
<p>He smiled shyly, and I was a goner.</p>
<p>He was the one I wanted to be with forever.</p>
<p>About two years later, after we’d moved in together and had made a trip to Thailand where I’d met his family, I’d asked him about his thoughts on marriage while we were laying in bed together. Ten had been spending his time littering my skin with hundreds of reverent kisses, like I was something to be worshipped.</p>
<p>“Would you ever want to get married?” I asked as I ran my fingers through his hair, and he let out a soft laugh, pressing another kiss to my stomach.</p>
<p>“Was it that good?”</p>
<p>I propped myself up on my elbows, Ten letting out a disgruntled noise as he was forced to move. “I’m being serious, baby. Because I want it.”</p>
<p>Ten froze a moment before a smile took over his expression and he climbed onto my lap to kiss my lips, his hands cupping my face. He drew back slightly, running his thumbs over my cheeks lightly. “One day, I’d love to marry you.”</p>
<p>“One day?” I asked. “What’s stopping it from being now?”</p>
<p>“You haven’t asked,” he answered simply before capturing me in a kiss again.</p>
<p>At that point, it was just going to be a matter of time before I did.</p>
<p>And then it was the Christmas party.</p>
<p>Mark and Yuta had both gone missing at some point, though Yuta’d had that look… The one that said he was getting something he wanted and was more than a little pleased by it. Yoonoh and I had been sitting next to each other on a couch, drinking punch and watching Taeyong and Ten as they danced together.</p>
<p>Ten, having decided that the usual Santa outfit drag wasn’t good enough, had opted for something based on the Nutcracker ballet, with fluttering skirts and a jeweled bodice, soft blonde curls styled to one side to show that the dress was almost backless. Nevermind that we’d watched the ballet videos every day for a week while he designed it… he looked stunning.</p>
<p>After being caught staring, Yoonoh elbowed me in the side.</p>
<p>“What the fuck was that for?” I grumbled.</p>
<p>He shook his head. “I asked you a question and you were too damn busy being a simp for your man that you didn’t even notice.”</p>
<p>“As if you’ve never been like this about Taeyong,” I retorted, earning a snort from Dongyoung, who’d taken Taeyong’s spot at Yoonoh’s side. “And Dongyoung, too, so I don’t want to hear it.”</p>
<p>Yoonoh snorted and carefully slid an arm around Dongyoung, pulling him just a little bit closer. I knew the three of them had been careful about their relationship. I’d even been asked to keep it from Ten, and I had, despite the fact that I hated keeping things from him.</p>
<p>“Uh-oh… We’re losing him again,” Dongyoung sighed, taking the opportunity of having no one looking to kiss Yoonoh’s cheek. “What’s on your mind, Johnny?”</p>
<p>“I’m gonna ask him to marry me.”</p>
<p>Ten had walked over shortly after, grabbing my hand and pulling me over to dance with him, while Taeyong had walked over to his partners, stretching his legs out over Dongyoung’s lap as he sat in Yoonoh’s.</p>
<p>Proposal planning started Christmas morning.</p>
<p>Ten tended to sleep in when he had days off, especially after a long night. I’d kissed from his shoulder to his cheek, being lightly swatted with a grumble before he pulled the stack of blankets up to his ears and went back to bed. Laughing to myself, I climbed out of bed, pulling on a pair of flannel pants and a t-shirt before grabbing my laptop and heading to the living room.</p>
<p>First things first, I’d made a group chat of my most trusted: Yoonoh, Taeyong and Yuta. Mark and I were close, but I didn’t know if he could keep the secret from Ten, especially with the way Ten managed to get anything out of him with a bat of his eyelashes and a brilliant smile. Unfortunately, he was just too damn good at wrapping people around his finger.</p>
<p>
  <i><b>John Suh-na</b><br/>I’m gonna marry the hell out of this man</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Yongie</b><br/>Really? So happy for you!</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Jeffery</b><br/>no dont u lie 2 us<br/>u haven’t asked yet<br/>lying scoundrel</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Yuyu</b><br/>Guys...</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>John Suh-na</b><br/>I see ur point Jae, but….<br/>Also I’m gonna fuckin marry him</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Yuyu</b><br/>Guys I fucked Mark</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Jeffery</b><br/>wait what<br/>holy shit dude</i>
</p>
<p>
  <b>Yuyu has been changed to markfucker 5000</b>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Jeffery</b><br/>haha</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>markfucker 5000</b><br/>Okay first off fuck you<br/>Second, i was expecting 420 instead</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Jeffery</b><br/>fcuk<br/>ur rite</i>
</p>
<p>
  <b>markfucker 5000 has been changed to markfucker 420</b>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Jeffery</b><br/>nice</i>
</p>
<p>
  <b>John Suh-na has been changed to whipped 4 dayz</b>
</p>
<p>
  <b>Yongie has been changed to best boyfriend</b>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>whipped 4 dayz</b><br/>Wow<br/>Lose my number.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <b>Jeffery has been changed to Stoner who forgot to switch over the laundry</b>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>markfucker 420</b><br/>trouble in paradise?</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Stoner who forgot to switch over the laundry</b><br/>wow<br/>k<br/>thats how its gonna b huh<br/>u over there on the other side of the couch<br/>with ur sweater paws<br/>lookin cute af<br/>calling me out for that in front of our friends</i>
</p>
<p>
  <b>best boyfriend has been changed to The Pawdacity</b>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>The Pawdacity</b><br/>Who did this?</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>whipped 4 dayz</b><br/>Hand slipped<br/>But can we get back to the important thing?<br/>Like how I’m gonna ask the love of my life to marry me</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>markfucker 420</b><br/>Youngho<br/>You’ve been saying this for years</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Stoner who forgot to switch over the laundry</b><br/>yeah its been a thing with u<br/>gonna marry ten but r u<br/>also yong bby how did u lock my name<br/>i cant change it<br/>o shit i forgot youngho was a thing</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>whipped 4 dayz</b><br/>You mean my name?</i>
</p>
<p>
  <b>whipped 4 dayz has been changed to young hoe</b>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>young hoe</b><br/>I’m blocking every single one of you</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>The Pawdacity</b><br/>You say that all the time, too.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Stoner who forgot to turn over the laundry</b><br/>see<br/>u sit on a throne of lies</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>young hoe</b><br/>at least it’s not a beanbag chair</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Stoner who forgot to turn over the laundry</b><br/>low blow</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>markfucker 420</b><br/>Give a man a little warning before you annihilate him next time<br/>But also<br/>Git rekt</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>young hoe</b><br/>I know that you guys don’t believe I’ll go through with it<br/>But trust me<br/>I’ll even make a deal with you<br/>If I turn chicken shit and don’t marry him I buy you all dinner<br/>But if I get engaged to Ten in the next year<br/>thinking about Christmas Eve btw<br/>Then you guys pay for the engagement party</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>markfucker 420</b><br/>completely fair but one question<br/>As the one who got you both together in the first place<br/>Am i immune to the punishment</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>The Pawdacity</b><br/>Hooking up with both of them doesn’t count as getting them together, Yuta.<br/>Remember that Ten got really awkward after that<br/>Tried avoiding everyone.<br/>Ring a bell?</i>
</p>
<p><b>Stoner who forgot to turn over the laundry</b><br/>i mean sometimes threesomes start things</p>
<p>
  <b>Stoner who forgot to turn over the laundry has been changed to TMI The Science Guy</b>
</p>
<p>
  <b>TMI The Science Guy has been changed to TGIThursday</b>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>TGIThursday</b><br/>who keeps doing this</i>
</p>
<p>I was pulled from the conversation when Ten shuffled over and flopped onto the couch next to me with a soft grumble that I was pretty sure was supposed to be a “morning”. It was hard to be sure, though.</p>
<p>“Merry Christmas, baby,” I hummed, kissing the top of his head.</p>
<p>The day, for the most part, was uneventful, at least until Ten determined that he needed to make cookies because I’d told him about making cookies for Santa with my mom. They’d turned out horrible and there’d been a mess of frosting and flour all over the counters, but he’d done it to make me smile. This was also the day that Leon was added to our little family, and Ten had been so happy.</p>
<p>Over the year, we didn’t have many days off together, which worked out for planning out the proposal, but meant I didn’t get a lot of days with him all to myself, and sometimes those days we did have coincided with a drag show or were too close to a deadline. And yeah, it sucked that I wasn’t able to spend all too much time with him, but he was making a name for himself in the world of drag and he was doing something he loved.</p>
<p>The beginning of October, I’d saved enough for a decent ring, and I knew I wanted something to match the chakkraphat that Ten had stored away in the closet for a special occasion. Changkyun had told me of the shop he and Hyungwon had gone to, and I knew they had a reputation as the jewelers in the area for the queer community. I’d brought Yoonoh with me for a second opinion, since Yuta was out with Mark… again</p>
<p>Pushing open the doors, we were met by two men who greeted us cheerfully. They had been facing each, with the taller of the two straightening the other’s tie before smoothing his hand down it. When that was done, the shorter turned to us and flashed a dazzling smile.</p>
<p>“Welcome to Serendipity jewelers!” he chimed, leaning against the counter, which caused his brown hair to fall into his eyes. The other smiled to himself, shaking his head.</p>
<p>I looked between the two of them, smiling back at them, “Hi. I’m looking for a ring.” The man with the dazzling smile looked between me and Yoonoh and I shook my head. “He’s just here for a second opinion. My boyfriend’s at work.”</p>
<p>The other jeweler perked up, stepping closer to listen in. “Tell us about him.”</p>
<p>“He…” I paused, scratching the back of my head, “He’s a drag performer, so I was thinking of something red and gold. He’s got this chakkraphat he’s always dreamed of wearing for some big occasion in the same colors. I guess gold jewelry is traditional with it.”</p>
<p>“He’s dramatic sometimes,” Yoonoh added, having walked over to one of the cases of earrings and giving a small nod appraisingly. “Do you guys have ear cuffs?”</p>
<p>The shorter jeweler looked to the other, “Would you mind too terribly, dear?”</p>
<p>“Of course, Jimin,” he answered, walking over to Yoonoh, where they spoke in hushed voices.</p>
<p>Jimin turned back to me, his lashes fluttering a moment before he encouraged me to continue. “Do you know his ring size?”</p>
<p>I nodded and answered, still a little awkwardly. At least Ten and I had the foresight to find out our ring sizings. After a moment, I pulled out my phone, showing him the background. Of course it was Ten. He was sitting on the floor of our living room, on top of a decorative rug, flashing a smile up at me as Louis and Leon climbed all over him. “That’s him. We met while we were taking the trash out for our respective jobs. I went to help him and he hit me in the face with a bag of used coffee grounds.” I laughed to myself, knowing how much he hated that story.</p>
<p>“Cute,” Jimin cooed. “I met Taehyung over there back in college. I was a nude model for some extra cash. He was an artist. Weirdest man to ever paint me. We’ve been close since.” He hummed, looking through the rings that they had in stock, pulling a few options for me to look at while we chatted about things.</p>
<p>I settled on a gold band with little white sapphires and a larger ruby. It would look good with the chakkri he was always saying he’d wear when he got married. He’d never worn it in front of me, especially after I’d asked his opinion on marriage, saying it was bad luck, and so it sat in the back of our closet.</p>
<p>I’d taken a picture of the ring, sending it in the group chat with my friends.</p>
<p>
  <i><b>young hoe</b><br/>Ring acquired<br/>Soon I’ll acquire a husband</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>The Pawdacity</b><br/>He’s gonna love it.<br/>Actually, he’s also texting me about the Halloween party.<br/>Theme this year is movies.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>markfucker 420</b><br/>I wonder if Mark will want to do a couple’s costume?</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>TGIThursday</b><br/>shouldnt you be a couple before you do that<br/>yong<br/>you me and dongyoung<br/>charlies angels<br/>there arent a lot of options for the three of us</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>markfucker 420</b><br/>Uh just look at like tween movies<br/>Twilight<br/>Hunger Games<br/>There’s also Star Trek and Dongyoung could be Spock.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>The Pawdacity</b><br/>Those are terrible options<br/>Except for Star Trek<br/>OH WAIT what about Man From UNCLE?</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>TGIThursday</b><br/>babe omg<br/>ur a genius<br/>i will be a cute gabby</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>The Pawdacity</b><br/>No.<br/>Absolutely not.<br/>You’re Illya.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>TGIThursday</b><br/>im not russian<br/>bby u no i take my time</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>markfucker 420</b><br/>You can’t see<br/>But I am gagging<br/>disGUSTing</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>The Pawdacity</b><br/>You’re just jealous.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <b>The Pawdacity has been changed to ball and chain</b>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>ball and chain</b><br/>How dare you???<br/>How dare you name me after hetero bullshit?<br/>Fuck this. I want a DIVORCE.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>TGIThursday</b><br/>:(</i>
</p>
<p>I smiled to myself and went to type a reply when Ten messaged me.</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Tennie</b><br/>buttercup and wesley<br/>what do u think?</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Johnny 💕</b><br/>Where are we gonna get a dress like that in my size?</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Tennie</b><br/>bby<br/>u no i’m the best around<br/>but also<br/>i’m buttercup<br/>u r gonna be the hot hero</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Johnny 💕</b><br/>Should I grow out my hair?</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i><b>Tennie</b><br/>asdfkl plz<br/>plz do that would look so hot<br/>that's the xmas gift i want</i>
</p>
<p>I laughed to myself, startling a bit when Yoonoh elbowed me in the side, laughing at something that happened in the group chat.</p>
<p>“Why don’t you guys let me breathe?” he snorted, stuffing his phone into his pocket.</p>
<p>“Didn’t know you could with your head between Taeyong’s thighs.”</p>
<p>Yoonoh gave a nervous laugh, “Look, I try my best… but the man is like… mega horny. He has you all fooled with the sweater paws. It got really wild in January, too.”</p>
<p>“Oh. I remember. Ten was worried that you weren’t eating or hydrating.” I let out a snort of a laugh, “Look, after the wedding, I hope no one tries to contact me or Ten. I plan on letting that man do whatever he wants with me.”</p>
<p>Yoonoh made a gagging sound before nudging me with his elbow again. “We should stop for coffee at his cafe.”</p>
<p>Of course I’d agreed.</p>
<p>Ten had been working, but the cafe was slow, and so I found him leaning against the counter next to the register as he tapped his nails against the glass top and twisted the hair of his wig around his finger. Si Cheng had once more chosen a princess theme, and so my favorite of Ten’s costumes came out of its place in our closet.</p>
<p>He always made such a beautiful Alice.</p>
<p>It took him a moment before he noticed the both of us standing there, the bored expression slowly morphed into a dazzling smile. I grinned back, walking to stand directly across from him at the counter while he batted his lashes at me.</p>
<p>He looked around for anyone else before standing on the tips of his toes and leaning over the counter. “Mr. Suh, you better give me a kiss.”</p>
<p>“This how you talk to all your customers?” I chuckled to myself, but I still gave in to his demand.</p>
<p>“Only the tall, handsome ones,” he shrugged, lowering himself back down to the flat of his feet, “Did you come to check on me, baby?”</p>
<p>“Actually,” Yoonoh cut in, “We were going to get coffee, but you know how he gets about this.” Unhelpfully, he gestured to the dress.</p>
<p>“That reminds me. I need to thank Si Cheng for getting you to break it back out,” I mused, craning my neck to watch as Ten walked over to the espresso machine to start on the drinks he already knew we were getting. “Baby, how set are you on Buttercup and Wesley?”</p>
<p>He looked over at me curiously, “Have a better idea?”</p>
<p>“Rick and Evie from the Mummy movies.”</p>
<p>There was a pause before he grinned, “Genius.”</p>
<p>I guess that was that. Ten spent weeks making sure our costumes for the Halloween party would be absolutely perfect. Sometimes, he would stay up way too late working on them and I would have the pleasure of watching him as he slept while I considered what the future might hold. Maybe we’d adopt some kids and get a house. I wasn’t planning to be a waiter forever and he had his own plans involving his work in drag.</p>
<p>Honestly, though, I figured he and I would take the future one step at a time, so long as he and I were together, even if he said no to my proposal.</p>
<p>The day of the Halloween party started off with the both of us working. We’d packed away our costumes to change into after work, given each other several kisses and headed to our respective workplaces.</p>
<p>It wasn’t a long or hard day, per se, but I really was disappointed I hadn’t been able to convince Ten to call off work with me just to stay home in bed.</p>
<p>We’d arrived late to the party, which was just normal for us at this rate. Ten paused at the door to smooth out the long skirt of his black dress and put a few of my stray hairs in place.</p>
<p>The venue was full of our friends, all dressed up as favorite movie characters. Immediately, Ten was pulled away by Minhyuck, who was dressed as Lara Croft, and I scanned the room for the hosts.</p>
<p>It wasn’t hard to pick them out, honestly. When Hyungwon was in heels, he stood taller than me, and Changkyun was usually at his side, trying to maintain a bored expression while sneaking glances at his husband. I was pretty sure they were the main characters from <i>Kamikaze Girls</i>, with Hyungwon as Momoko and Changkyun as Ichigo (holding a cabbage, which would be confusing if I didn't know the reference). Near Changkyun stood a few of Mark and Donghyuck’s friends, all looking exceptionally mischievous, even in their brightly colored <i>Power Rangers</i> costumes.</p>
<p>Changkyun waved me over as I walked towards them. “Suh, I’m rigging Secret Santa,” he announced when he felt I was close enough. “And they’re helping.” Chenle and Jisung looked to each other while snickering at whatever they were planning.</p>
<p>“What are you doing?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the toothy grin Jaemin flashed me.</p>
<p>“Payback for the slime,” Jisung shrugged. “It’s just Hyuck we’re messing with.”</p>
<p>Ah, I suppose I should have guessed that Donghyuck’s gift to Changkyun last year was going to earn some kind of payback. He’d wrapped slime and glitter in some wrapping paper with no other packaging and had gotten a mess of chunky glitter and purple goo all over Changkyun’s new dress. Ten had only finished sewing it the week before and had to excuse himself from the group to shout something in Thai just outside the venue’s door. Apparently, my Christmas spirit had very narrowly saved Donghyuck’s life that night, and Ten had very loudly informed everyone of it.</p>
<p>There was a loud chiming noise, Chenle looking at his phone before pumping his fist in the air with an excited sound. “He’s in!”</p>
<p>“Who..?” I was morbidly curious, especially judging by the way everyone shared a knowing smirk.</p>
<p>“Just Donghyuck’s crush. He’s agreed to come to the Christmas party,” Jaemin tittered, “And <i>that</i> means our dear Hyuckie is going to panic while trying to figure out a present for him.”</p>
<p>I shook my head, deciding I was much too sober for this, and headed to the drink table.</p>
<p>Halloween parties tended to be wild if they were thrown by Changkyun and Hyungwon, and I was glad to know that their new status as a married couple didn’t seem to actually change that for them. The music was still loud, the decorations were still wild, and the drinks were still strong. I guess the only change was that they finally knew they were actually in love with each other… but that was a story for another day.</p>
<p>I wound up gravitating towards Yuta (who was a vampire, because of course he was, and maybe about four drinks in judging by his expression) and Yoonoh, who was watching at Taeyong and Dongyoung swayed with each other to the music. Ten was near them, having managed to pull Hoseok over to dance with himself and Minhyuk.</p>
<p>“That man could make it in so many places,” Yuta slurred out, gesturing to Hoseok, “Modelling… porn… My bed, if Mark wasn’t occupying it.”</p>
<p>Yoonoh gagged a bit before taking a long drink of the notorious Halloween punch. “I can’t believe that shit’s still going on with you two and you STILL haven’t asked him out. Let him go date Donghyuck or something.”</p>
<p>“Oh, Donghyuck’s into someone else,” I chuckled, pouring myself some punch, “The kids are in on something with Changkyun.”</p>
<p>“Well then…” Yoonoh paused, trying to come up with another name, “Renjun?”</p>
<p>The young man in question let out a snort nearby, saying a loud “not fucking likely” before walking off with an entire bowl of Chex mix. Rather than ask what he was possibly up to, I took a long sip of my drink and kept my eyes on Ten.</p>
<p>“I should propose to him tonight,” I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. “Just ask him to marry me right here and now.”</p>
<p>Yuta let out a loud cackle, “You don’t have the ring yet, dumbass!”</p>
<p>I let out a long sigh, “I don’t need it. I’m just gonna have a few drinks to loosen up and then I’m gonna ask him.”</p>
<p>It was more than a few drinks.</p>
<p>I’m sure I asked, earning a huff of a laugh as he helped me into the back of a taxi at the end of the night. “Baby, you’re drunk and talking nonsense. If you’re serious, then ask me when you’re sober,” he sighed, lightly thumbing at the two folded strips of paper in his hands.</p>
<p>I didn’t actually wind up asking him for a while.</p>
<p>I called his family, realizing that they should probably know what was coming, and they were happy about it. Tern had even mentioned something about possibly even having work in the area soon and that she’d let me know if things worked out.</p>
<p>Then, on Thanksgiving, I got a call from my mom.</p>
<p>Ten had been sleeping with his head on my lap, an arm draped around Louis, who was curled up beside him, while Lean draped himself across Ten’s hip. I busied myself with running my fingers through his hair and smiling to myself as I mindlessly scrolled through Instagram on my phone, the collection of the Im-Chae’s latest date pictures (not the staged photoshoot ones, either. No, these ones were the pictures they’d both taken themselves of the dates they hadn’t been on before their marriage), being interrupted as my phone started ringing.</p>
<p>I picked up quickly, seeing who it was. “Eomma, how are you?” I asked, keeping my voice low to not wake the man asleep on my lap.</p>
<p>She laughed to herself a moment, “Well, Youngho, I was thinking about it, and I might be able to make it for a visit this Christmas.”</p>
<p>I blinked a few times. “Really..?”</p>
<p>“Of course! Now are you gonna propose to that nice young man or not?” I couldn’t see her face, but I could hear the anticipation in her voice. She hadn’t even met Ten, yet. She’d seen him in video calls and talked to him on the phone, but she’d never personally met him. “I’ve been waiting on that call for a while, Youngho.”</p>
<p>“I know, eomma. I’m working on it. Maybe I’ll just wait until you’re here.”</p>
<p>She hummed, “Maybe you should. Now can you put him on the phone?”</p>
<p>“He’s asleep,” I hummed, twisting his hair around my fingers. It had been growing out, and he’d dyed it back to black, recently. “But he’s made a very cute cat bed.”</p>
<p>There was a chiming laugh over the call. “I’ll catch him next time, then. I’m looking into hotels for my visit. Which ones are you closest to?”</p>
<p>“No. No hotel. Ten and I have a spare room. You can use that.”</p>
<p>Okay, so maybe Ten and I should have talked about it before I offered, but I couldn’t see him saying no, and I’d already convinced him that he needed to take a break from commission work for a little bit, so maybe Christmas week would be perfect for him to not have use of his sewing room.</p>
<p>I’d been right, too. He was easily convinced.</p>
<p>My plans stuck, but they also changed to fit certain new things.</p>
<p>Tern would be in New York around the same time. I’d been working on making sure she would come and visit us at some point, though she had been adamant not to tell Ten, just so that she wouldn’t get her hopes up if she couldn’t make it.</p>
<p>A few of our friends would be there when I asked him to marry me, and I was planning to take him to the park where I’d first told him I loved him. It would be perfect, especially with the way they had strung lights around the gazebo, looking like a perfect winter wonderland. Hopefully, Ten would wear something practical so that the bitter chill didn’t get to him as much. We’d have someone to take pictures of it so we could have that reminder forever.</p>
<p>It was going to be perfect.</p>
<p>The day that my mother arrived was going to be great. Ten would be back from work before she got here, with enough time to shower and dress warmly before she arrived.</p>
<p>Except, she’d arrived early and I’d forgotten to send him a warning text. Or, at least I’d forgotten to send it.</p>
<p>We’d laughed and talked and caught up, which was amazing. We talked on the phone before, but being in the same room was comforting. The cats seemed to like her, too, which was a bonus.</p>
<p>And then the door was thrown open, and Ten yelled about me getting on my knees to undress him. My mom snorted out a laugh, craning her neck to look at him, and even though I couldn’t see him at that moment, I knew there was a panic setting in. He’d been so worried about making a good first impression, not knowing that my mom already adored him.</p>
<p>The next few days were eventful, with my mom slowly getting to know more about her future son-in-law.</p>
<p>I’d even come home the day after they met to find them huddled on the couch, the cats lounging across them as they watched <i>Dragula</i> and talked about the show. It was nice, seeing the people I loved the most getting along.</p>
<p>Not that I was worried they wouldn’t. They were both determined to leave the other with a good impression. I knew that he had, even with the sugary frosting fight when we were baking and decorating cookies.</p>
<p>He’d almost found the ring before, and I’d quickly lied and told him it was earrings from my mother. I’d asked Yuta later if he could get her some, and he’d happily agreed to.</p>
<p>And then it was Christmas Eve.</p>
<p>The Christmas party.</p>
<p>The day that was going to start the next big chapter of my life with Ten.</p>
<p>In true Ten fashion, he didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning and had feigned sleep to avoid it.</p>
<p>“I know you’re awake,” I said under my breath, pressing a kiss to his ear, “We should get out of bed.”</p>
<p>He raised his head from the pillow, lazily blinking sleep from his eyes as he looked at the furry lumps curled up on his legs. “We can’t,” he whined, “The kids are comfy.”</p>
<p>And it was so damn easy to give into that. He’d even whined about how tomorrow was Christmas, which was always funny to hear from him, since he was Buddhist. I must have rubbed off on him a little bit, because he had slowly started to enjoy certain aspects (mostly the spending time with friends and family, and probably the fact that it meant presents).</p>
<p>We spent a little longer curled up in each other’s arms before I reluctantly pulled myself out of bed, Ten letting out a low whistle as I got myself dressed.</p>
<p>“How the hell did I get so lucky?” he’d said in a sigh, but I couldn’t really answer that when I was the lucky one, so I cracked a joke about how we’d met. He was still not too thrilled about hitting me in the face with a trash bag full of used coffee grounds, but it’d left an impression. That and the fact that he’d been dressed like Alice at the time and I spent weeks asking Taeyong the name of his coworker.</p>
<p>And tonight, I was going to ask him to marry me, and I just knew he was going to say yes. We’d talked about it a hundred times, so it wasn’t even a question of if he’d say yes. The question was when and where the wedding would take place.</p>
<p>He protested that the incident where we’d met was an accident, still laying in the bed under the covers. I sat on the edge of the mattress, turning myself to take him in: the crescent moon eyes because of his smile, the sleep-mussed hair that fell into his eyes, the little moles on his skin. He was perfect.</p>
<p>Reaching out, I ran my fingers through his hair, gently smoothing it back into place. “I love you and I love where we ended up, even if we started out at a dumpster.”</p>
<p>I guess saying that hit something with him, because he blushed (I hadn’t seen him blush like that since we moved in together) and tilted his head upwards, blinking rapidly. Oh god, was he tearing up? After a moment, he maneuvered himself on the bed, kneeling beside me on the mattress and grabbing two fistfuls of my shirt before giving me a kiss overflowing with emotion. I kissed him back with just as much, almost forgetting that someone else was in the apartment and that we had plans for the day until he patted my shoulder twice to break the kiss.</p>
<p>Okay, I guess I was on Team Stay In Bed, too.</p>
<p>The group chat had been blowing up all day, and I suspected it was my friends going on about either how weird the gifts were going to be this year or some full-scale debate over which restaurant I’d be treating them to.</p>
<p>Ten seemed… off… leading up to the party. Not bad, but like something was on his mind that I didn’t quite know. Maybe the intense stares from my mom weren’t helping.</p>
<p>At some point, he excused himself to get ready for the party, and she turned to look at me, something devious sparkling in her eyes. “Should I look for a room for the night? You’re getting engaged and, judging from the other morning, neither of you are that quiet.”</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure the color drained from my face at that point, and I couldn’t even bring myself to make eye contact. “Sorry, eomma.”</p>
<p>She shook her head. “Still, I overheard worse back when you lived with Yuta.” She paused and sipped at her coffee. “Relax, Youngho, you know he’ll say yes.”</p>
<p>I nodded, finally smiling to myself. After a long pause, I spoke up again. “You know, when I realized he was the one for me, I kept thinking about how this day was going to go. And then later about the future… I woke up one morning and it just hit me that I wanted it all with him.”</p>
<p>She nodded slightly, smiling and reaching to cover my hand with her own. “Then I’m very happy for you that you were hit in the face.”</p>
<p>Laughing to myself, I’d taken another drink of my coffee, choking on it when Ten stepped into the kitchen, leaning on the wall and asking how he looked.</p>
<p>I’d expected drag.</p>
<p>He always, always did drag for the Christmas party. And yet, here he stood in the doorway, wearing a black suit with a burgundy button-up shirt that was only partway done up, thin golden chains hanging from his neck. Of course, he couldn’t resist a little makeup and his hair was styled off to one side. The moment I stopped coughing and took him in, I breathed out a “Jesus”, earning a quip from Ten that I almost missed, fumbling over my words when I responded to him.</p>
<p>I’d gotten dressed for the party fairly quickly after that, having picked out my suit months ago, but I’d stayed in our room a little longer, talking to myself in the mirror.</p>
<p>It was a big step and it was one I definitely wanted to take with him.</p>
<p>When I’d left the room, he and my mom were talking to each other in hushed voices. Ten seemed to just freeze when he saw me, and I had to wonder if that was the same expression that had just been on my face.</p>
<p>He gave one last effort to stay at home, which was avoided easily, before we were all packed into a taxi heading to the venue.</p>
<p>As always, Im-Chae parties were large and loud, though this one felt less packed because of the number of people who had headed home for the holidays. There were fewer attendees in drag, and Ten was very quickly swept away by Yangyang, who seemed annoyed by the fact that Ten hadn’t dressed up. Yuta grabbed my mom to introduce her to our friends, which left me to find my other friends.</p>
<p>Changkyun had seemed rather proud of everything, especially the plan, leaning slightly against his husband’s arm and resting his chin on Hyungwon’s shoulder while they greeted the guests. I didn’t speak much with them, though.</p>
<p>I eventually found Yoonoh, Dongyoung and Taeyong all huddled on the couch, with Yoongi taking over an entire couch as he tapped through the messages on his phone.</p>
<p>The three of them had gotten a little bolder as time passed, especially with the way that Dongyoung’s hand caressed Taeyong’s thigh, and how Yoonoh would stretch his arm out to lightly rub his knuckles against Dongyoung’s neck.</p>
<p>Ten eventually brought me some mulled wine, but he didn’t stay long before he was pulled into the flow of people.</p>
<p>"Congrats on the engagement, by the way," Yoongi drawled, stiletto nails clacking against the screen of his phone. He didn't usually run in my circles, but word did travel fast in our group.</p>
<p>“You have the ring, right?” Dongyoung asked, craning his neck to watch as Ten walked into the corner to speak with Donghyuck.</p>
<p>“Of course I do.” I reached into my pocket to show them, but Taeyong shook his head.</p>
<p>“Not the time.”</p>
<p>After a while, I made my rounds, striking conversation with everyone I could and only stopping to make Ten a hot chocolate. There was one new face amongst the sea of old friends, and I was quick to introduce myself to him, but noted the way he stuck to Donghyuck’s side, frowning a bit when the kid had been pulled away by Jeno and Jaemin.</p>
<p>“So…” I started, “Taeil, right?” He nodded, fidgeting slightly with his sweater paws. “This must be a weird party for you to be at, huh? I know we can all be kind of intense and all.”</p>
<p>“Not really,” he sighed, “Hyuckie’s been with me the whole time until now.”</p>
<p>I raised a brow at the nickname. “Hyuckie? You two must be close.”</p>
<p>Of course, that’s when Donghyuck barrelled back into the conversation.</p>
<p>“Duh we’re close. We’re verifiable soulmates,” he announced, punching my arm lightly.</p>
<p>I didn’t ask.</p>
<p>It wasn’t long before Secret Santa started, but something about it was weird. Usually, we announced ourselves after the present we gifted was opened, but this time no one did. Maybe it was a new setup and all and everyone was in on it but me.</p>
<p>A lot of the gifts were funny, but, for some reason, the further into the group we got, the more tense things seemed to get. Ten was even going a little rigid in my lap, even as he excitedly peeked through the box of cat hats and sweaters to see what all he got.</p>
<p>And then it got to me. The last one, for some reason.</p>
<p>The box was small, and I was going to guess it was a pair of earrings or something along those lines. Ten had gotten off of my lap carefully, and I’d guessed it was to give the others a better view as I flipped open the lid and…</p>
<p>It was empty.</p>
<p>It was a very empty ring box, and I could feel myself getting more and more nervous as I showed it to everyone.</p>
<p>“Anyone wanna explain what’s going on?”</p>
<p>Ten cleared his throat slightly. “I guess I will.” My heart was pounding in my chest as I looked at him and he took in a deep breath. “With as much as we’ve talked about this, you’d think I’d be a lot less nervous. But I guess that’s the effect you have on me. God, John, you make me feel so giddy with every kiss. I wake up every morning knowing that I’m the luckiest man on the planet because there you are. You’re my best friend, my home, the love of my goddamn life, and even if we met in the stupidest way possible, I wouldn’t change any of it if it means I can spend the rest of my life with you. So…”</p>
<p>A year’s worth of plans were shattering with every word he said, but I couldn’t help the emotions that took over when he got down on one knee, my hand over my mouth as I tried to hold back a sob. And there he was, on one knee in front of me, looking at me like I’d hung the stars myself as he pulled a ring from his pocket and held it in front of me.</p>
<p>“Marry me?”</p>
<p>I couldn’t help the laughter at the whole situation. Of course Ten would beat me to it, and I couldn’t bring myself to care. He looked confused, even more so when I reached into my own pocket to grab a ring box of my own.</p>
<p>“I was going to ask you,” I managed out.</p>
<p>Ten looked like a deer in headlights for a moment, staring at the ring for a second before turning his focus to me and croaking out an “Is that a yes?” and I nodded because my voice was failing me. The next thing I knew, his lips were on mine.</p>
<p>And okay so I had just watched a year’s worth of plans go down the drain, but I had a feeling it was always going to wind up being kind of a mess, and, as long as we were together, I could deal with a few messes.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Epilogue: Three Years Later...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Three years has brought a lot of changes and more are on the way.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was weird, packing away your life into boxes, Ten realized. Cardboard boxes had been stacked around them, waiting to be moved hours away to their new home in Chicago. Johnny had been thrilled to be close to his mom again, and Ten had been uncertain of the move until he’d learned that Chicago had become a drag capital.</p><p>There were still a few things that hadn’t been packed away properly, but they had a few weeks to finish up.</p><p>He’d slid out of Johnny’s grasp in the morning, rummaging through a bag to find the holiday sweater Johnny had gotten him the year before as well as a pair of candy cane striped leggings and a pair of fur-lined heeled boots. His wig for the day had been left out and carefully styled, with it sitting on the bathroom counter.</p><p>This would be the last Christmas party where Johnny and Ten would be living in New York, having decided that it would be for the best in the long run. They’d try to make it out for others, but they knew it would be tricky. Besides, Johnny’s new job had called for it, and Ten would get to stay at home and do commission work. It was an all-around win.</p><p>Johnny walked into the bathroom, where Ten was currently applying eyeliner with a practiced hand.</p><p>“Could be delivered today,” Johnny pointed out, as he had every morning for the past week and a half, reaching for his toothbrush.</p><p>Ten paused, huffing out a laugh, “My love, this is a baby you’re talking about, not an amazon package.”</p><p>“Babies are delivered, too, y’know,” his husband grumbled as he applied toothpaste and started brushing his teeth. He mumbled something else out around the toothbrush, and Ten laughed again. It was probably something else to do with the expected arrival.</p><p>“We’ve got two weeks until the due date,” Ten replied, poking Johnny’s arm with the bottom of his eyeliner.</p><p>Johnny stopped his brushing after a moment to spit out the foam, “You know she’s going to take after you and make a dramatic entrance into the world. It’s genetics.”</p><p>Ten loudly snorted out a laugh at that. “Johnny... Baby... Love of my life... That’s not how genetics work at all.” He paused as he rummaged around for his lash glue, locating it with a sound of delight. "Besides, true to my nature, I was fashionably late. If she shows up this early, I'm going to worry she has anxiety."</p><p>Johnny shrugged, reaching past Ten to flick on the bathroom fan, starting the shower after rinsing out his mouth. Ten huffed a little at that, but went about finishing his makeup and fixing the wig, looking at his slightly foggy reflection when he was done.</p><p>Careful not to ruin his makeup, he slipped the sweater over his head before making his way to the bedroom to pull on the fleece-lined leggings and a pair of warm socks, making the last-minute decision to pose as sweetly as he was able to on their bed, twirling a strand of dark hair around his finger.</p><p>Johnny walked into the room, raising an eyebrow at the way his husband lounged. “What are you doing, baby?”</p><p>Ten sighed softly, “This will be our last Christmas party before we’re parents, you know. Our last one in New York. We need to make it memorable, right?”</p><p>There was a laugh in response. “Big new jobs and babies tend to change things a lot. And tomorrow, we’re gonna head to Chicago and set up the nursery for our little Haebaragi. Unless…”</p><p>“Don’t say it," Ten warned, sitting upright, "She isn't supposed to be here yet. We're not ready for her. You even <i>just</i> said about how the nursery isn’t even set up." He took a deep breath and covered his face with his hands. “Do you think we were too impulsive and thought we were ready for her when we definitely aren’t?”</p><p>Frowning, Johnny stepped closer and gently coaxed Ten’s hands from his face. “Baby, it’s okay to be nervous. A lot’s changing all at once, but you’re going to be an amazing dad. And we’re together in this. <i>And</i> if you think you can’t handle it or you need a break while I’m not there, my eomma is going to be like fifteen minutes away.”</p><p>Ten let out a dry laugh, “I know.”</p><p>“So,” Johnny sighed, holding Ten’s face in his hands (and Ten allowed his gaze to travel down his husband’s bare chest a moment). “We’ve done everything we can to get ready for her. The new job wasn’t something we could have prepared for, but it’ll be good for us.” There was a nod in response, and Johnny pressed a kiss to the tip of Ten’s nose. “And I know that you’re nervous about being a dad, but I just know you’re going to be so good at it. You even cried when you found out it took and we could maybe have a baby on the way. I can’t wait to meet her.”</p><p>“I know,” Ten mumbled, “You won’t quit bringing up the due date.”</p><p>With a small chuckle, Johnny leaned in to press a kiss to his husband’s lips before letting him go to get himself ready for the party. The last party before they’d be parents… The last party before they’d leave.</p><p>After a moment, he got off the bed to mill about the room, tossing things they wouldn’t immediately need into the open boxes scattered around, trying to distract himself from the emotions welling up inside. On occasion, he’d look to his phone, sometimes finding a message from Seulgi (usually a picture of her and her wife, Joohyun, who was currently almost to full term with Johnny’s daughter… <i>Their</i> daughter).</p><p>“You seen Joohyun’s sweater for tonight?” he asked, Johnny perking up ever so slightly as he walked over to him, “She’s made the belly look like a snow globe.”</p><p>Johnny craned his neck slightly to look at the image on his phone. “Ask them if they’ll need a ride to the party.”</p><p>Ten rolled his eyes, sending the text, “Suh, if you’re planning on spending the whole night hovering over them, Seulgi always carries a taser...”</p><p>Huffing out a laugh, Johnny pressed a kiss to the top of his head.</p><p>Seulgi turned down the offer, and the two went about their day. Ten continued filling boxes with whatever they wouldn’t immediately need (though Johnny stopped him from packing any of the baby stuff because what if..?).</p><p>It was bitterly cold, and Ten regretted wearing the leggings, even if they were fleece-lined, because of it. Johnny, on the other hand, was as bundled up as he could be, taking off his scarf and wrapping it loosely around Ten’s neck to try to warm him up further at some point, and even turning the heat in the car up to the highest setting as they made their way slowly over icy streets to the party’s venue.</p><p>Stepping into the venue for the Christmas party, as always, was interesting. Besides the wave of warmth that hit them as soon as they stepped inside, it was always strange to see how, over the years, their friend group had changed and evolved. Some people had moved away, new faces coming in to fill the voids left behind.</p><p>They would just be the next to leave.</p><p>Johnny kissed Ten’s forehead as he helped him out of his coat to hang it up with the others. Unlike past years, Ten waited nearby, pulling at the hem of his oversized sweater, Johnny’s arm sliding around his shoulders before they started greeting their friends.</p><p>Yoonoh raised a red solo cup full of beer as soon as he saw them, letting out a loud whoop as Dongyoung rolled his eyes at his antics. Taeyong was quick to join them, wiggling his way to sit between his husband and their boyfriend, Dongyoung giving him a quick kiss when he was handed a cup of coffee.</p><p>“I told them you were just running behind and not that our godkid was on the way,” Yoonoh chuckled before taking a long drink from his beer, “You’d have called us first.”</p><p>“Exactly. I would have called you the second little bunny was coming,” Johnny answered, “But… There’s still time for her to arrive tonight.”</p><p>Ten tensed a moment. “My sweet, perfect snugglekins… Would you, for the rest of the night, stop bringing up that she’s almost due? We still have two weeks to wait.”</p><p>“Yeah, cuddle butt,” Yoonoh teased, “Pudding pop… Sweet bottom… Just enjoy the party!”</p><p>There was a nearby hum of approval, followed by a quiet comment. “Drinks would make the party more fun, right Ilie?”</p><p>Ten turned to look at them, holding back his urge to grimace at the way Donghyuck and Taeil were wrapped up in each other. Donghyuck had been leaning against the armrest of a loveseat, and Taeil was leaning against him, head resting on his shoulder and body turned enough that he could easily turn his head to accept any of the hundreds of kisses that Donghyuck was offering. Between those kisses, they played with each other's hands, examining their wedding rings as though they were brand new and not months old.</p><p>“Speaking of…” Taeil hummed, nosing along Donghyuck’s jaw, “Would you mind getting me a hot chocolate, my love?”</p><p>Donghyuck let out a small whine in response, “You’re so comfy, though.”</p><p>“You act as though you two aren’t joined at the hip at every waking moment,” Ten sighed out heavily.</p><p>“Jealous?” Donghyuck teased, carefully prying free of his husband’s grip.</p><p>“No. I’m good,” Ten answered, “Any news if Mark’s coming?”</p><p> </p><p>Taeil hummed slightly, “He said he’d be here, but you never know if the plane left on time.” Donghyuck turned his head towards his husband, reaching out to lightly caress his cheek, Taeil leaning into the touch. “My love, go so you can come back.”</p><p>There was a comment on the tip of his tongue when the venue’s door opened and Joohyun waddled in, holding tightly to her wife’s arm. Johnny was too busy talking with Yoonoh to notice, and so Ten ran over to speak with them. Seulgi approached him first, the both of them trading quick pecks on the cheek.</p><p>“How is she doing?” he asked quietly.</p><p>“<i>She</i> is sick and tired of this pregnancy thing,” Joohyun answered, “I want to eat sushi again.”</p><p>“Well, love, neither of us can even begin to express how much this means to us,” he replied, “Is she behaving at least?”</p><p>Joohyun shot him a look, “I think little hellspawn is an appropriate name for her.”</p><p>Ten opened his mouth to defend his unborn child when the door opened again, Yuta walking inside with a yawning Mark. Looking around a moment, Yuta’s eyes settled on Joohyun.</p><p>“Baby mama!” he called out, delighted, “And might I say you look murderous this evening!”</p><p>She smiled a bit at that, rubbing her belly, “At least I’m not glowing.”</p><p>Mark held on to Yuta’s arm, letting out a small whine of “oppa”, probably because of jet lag (All things considered, they had been on a vacation in Japan and had flown back in for the party and to see Ten and Johnny off). Yuta slid an arm around his waist, muttering a soft “when we get home, Markie” into his hair.</p><p>Changkyun and Hyungwon were both milling about the place, greeting guests and making light conversation, but Ten did manage to catch them for a moment before the newer guests dragged him away again.</p><p>Unlike other years, the party wouldn’t have the typical Secret Santa (everyone blamed Donghyuck for this development, but it wasn’t every year that someone in their group was expecting a baby). For the most part, the gifts were for Johnny and Ten, though Yuta had gotten Joohyun a self-care package with a spa gift card, a bottle of wine, and a gift card for her favorite sushi place.</p><p>Johnny’s arms tightened around Ten’s waist, holding him closer as he unwrapped another present. So far, there had been a collection of puffy coats and thick, heated blankets for their new home. Gingerly, Ten lifted the lid from the box, letting out a gasp as he looked over the tiny pink snowsuit with little cat ears on the hood. Johnny peered around him to look at the contents, letting out a laugh.</p><p>“That’s too damn cute,” he chuckled as Ten held it up.</p><p>Minhyuk nodded, “I know you call the baby little bunny or whatever, but they didn’t have any bunny ear ones. Figured the cat would work instead.”</p><p>“You know me so well,” Ten hummed, carefully folding it and putting it back in the box.</p><p>Everything was perfect.</p><p>At least until Seulgi walked over.</p><p>“Hey,” she started, almost cautiously, “So… What Joohyun thought were another round of Braxton Hicks contractions might not be. We’re going to go to the hospital if you two want to meet us there.” She was calm… far calmer than Ten was feeling at the moment, and definitely calmer than Johnny looked.</p><p>“I’ll drive.” It wasn’t a suggestion from Johnny so much as it’s a statement. Ten placed a hand on his arm to try to ground him, but his husband was already patting at the pockets of his jeans for the keys. “I can help her to the car, you and Ten grab the coats.” And with that, Johnny was weaving his way through their crowd of friends to where Joohyun stood, propping herself up against the wall.</p><p>“I’m going to kill him,” Ten grumbled as they rushed to gather coats and scarves, “He was fucking right.”</p><p>Seulgi huffed out a laugh when she heard her wife and his husband bickering as they made their way to the door.</p><p>“We can get a cab!” she snapped, pausing to hiss in pain.</p><p>“No! I’m driving! I gave up math and sitting properly for this shit, Joohyun, you’re not taking this from me!”</p><p>Honestly, if Ten wasn’t so stressed out, he would have been doubled over in laughter at that.</p><p>Everything about the trip to the hospital was stressful. Now it was even worse as Johnny couldn’t stop pacing in the waiting room, despite Ten’s best efforts.</p><p>“Suh, you’d better sit your ass right down,” he snapped at some point, and Johnny had been so shocked that he’d immediately plopped into the seat right next to him. “I’m going to get us something to drink and something to eat. You better stay right there and stop trying to wear a hole through the floor, or so help me.” And when he returned with bottled water and two styrofoam boxes of food, Johnny was still seated, his foot tapping impatiently.</p><p>A few of their friends had been keen to text them throughout, demanding a video call when they could meet the baby everyone had been waiting for. Johnny had been alternating between calls and texts with his mother for a couple of hours, with her threatening to catch a flight by the end of it.</p><p>Ten had very nearly fallen asleep, resting against Johnny, when Seulgi poked her head out of the delivery room. “You boys awake?”</p><p>Exhausted, Ten lifted his head, “Everything okay?”</p><p>She nodded, “I just thought you two should meet your baby. And like… Name her.”</p><p>Johnny was quick to wake up afterwards, looking more awake than he had been a second ago, standing up and walking over, Ten following behind with a loud yawn. “How’s Joohyun?”</p><p>“Tired and thanking the gods that it’s over,” she answered simply, letting them into the room. Seulgi walked over to press a kiss to her wife’s forehead before carefully picking up the baby and walking over to them. “Which one of you wants to hold her first?”</p><p>Johnny seemed frozen in place, unwilling to move, much like Ten was, though Ten moved first, the newborn placed gingerly into his arms.</p><p>She looked so much like the pictures Johnny’s mother had shown him of his husband as a newborn that he nearly started crying, the tears welling up despite his best efforts. Johnny seemed to have broken out of his stupor, leaning in to take a closer look at her, fingers lightly brushing over her tiny fingers.</p><p>“Welcome to the world, Haebaragi Suh,” he whispered.</p><p>Ten sniffled slightly, looking up at his husband with watery eyes, “Call your mom. We have to introduce her to our little Tai.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>
  <a href="https://twitter.com/yoongusamoongus">Twitter</a>
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        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Epilogue: The Third Birthday</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The last chapter of this segment of Maid To Order.</p><p>Set three years after Tai Haebaragi Suh's birth.</p><p>Also Tai's personality is based on my nephew's. A lot of what she does is stuff he's done.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The drive hadn’t been that long, and yet Ten had dozed off, his head against the window. Johnny glanced at him, not taking his eyes off the icy road for too long. He drove a bit under the speed limit, singing along with the Christmas songs he’d been adamant to play in the car since December 1st, a tiny voice from the back seat joining in to excitedly sing Frosty The Snowman maybe a little too loudly. Finally, they pulled into the driveway of his mother’s house, with Johnny letting out a sigh of relief as soon as the car was parked.</p><p>He sighed and reached out to shake Ten awake. “Baby, we’re here,” he said softly, “Can you get their coats?”</p><p>Ten grumbled as he woke up, unbuckling his seatbelt. He was exhausted, having worked all night on a commission piece for Hyungwon and Changkyun’s latest show. “But it’s cold outside.”</p><p>“I know, but the faster they have their coats on, the faster we get inside where it’s warm,” he replied gently.</p><p>“If I get the coats, you’re picking one of the girls to get into them. I already had to help Tai into her carseat,” Ten grumbled, opening the door and cursing under his breath as he jumped out of the minivan (god they had gotten a minivan since the girls had joined their family), scrambling towards the trunk to grab the two little winter coats, tossing the smaller one (and a fuzzy blanket because maybe trying to wrangle an infant into her thick winter coat in the cold was a horrible idea). “You get Maew.”</p><p>Johnny let out a soft laugh, his breath coming out in white puffs as he walked over to open the door closest to the nearly nine month-old. He tucked the blanket around her tightly, unlatching the carrier from its holder in the car. He glanced over towards his husband, who was currently struggling to get their (very nearly) three year old into her oversized pink coat while she excitedly told him a story.</p><p>“Where are your gloves and hat, Tai?” he groaned, “You spent all week talking about building a snowman with your halmeoni.”</p><p>“I packed extra,” Johnny piped up, grabbing one of the three cat carriers from the back of the car. “Can you get Louis and Akasha?”</p><p>“Fine, but you’re getting the…” he paused, zipping up Tai’s coat and grabbing her favorite stuffed dinosaur from where it had fallen between the car seats and handing it to her. “P-R-E-S-E-N-T-S.”</p><p>“What does that mean, papa?” Tai asked with big eyes as Ten helped her out of the car.</p><p>“Nothing, baby. Hand on the car.” She huffed, blatantly ignoring Ten as she followed him towards the back of the car, watching him as he grabbed the other two cat carriers from the trunk. As soon as he caught sight of her, she gasped and slapped her tiny hand on the car. He only let out an exasperated sigh, a soft smile pulling at his features. “Come on. Inside, before I stop thinking that little bunny face of yours is too cute to be mad at.”</p><p>“You’ll literally never stop thinking that.”</p><p>Ten clicked his tongue, quickly walking towards the front door with Tai following in his footsteps, “Don’t tell her that!”</p><p>Before they were even to the door, it swung open, Johnny’s mom standing in the doorway, excitedly waving them in. Johnny squeezed past her, pressing a kiss to her cheek before he set down the cat and baby carriers in the living room before slipping back outside to bring more things indoors, stepping aside when his daughter ran past to tackle her grandmother.</p><p>“Ah! Look at how much you’ve grown in the past week, little Haebaragi!”</p><p> </p><p>Ten let out a laugh, “If you think that’s wild, Young-hee has been growing a lot. We’re seeing teeth, now.” Setting down the other carriers, he ran back outside to help Johnny with the bags, the both of them making quick work of it. When they were back indoors, Ten toed off his shoes before going to set up the Pack N Play in the corner of the living room, retrieving his infant daughter when the task was complete.</p><p>“How did she do on the ride over?” Johnny’s mom asked, walking over with Tai attached to her legs as she giggled up a storm.</p><p>“The little monster on your leg? Sang Christmas carols loudly the entire time,” he answered with a laugh, “But this little angel slept the whole way here.”</p><p>“Papa, I’m not a monster!” Tai cried out, letting go of her grandmother’s legs to flop onto the floor with a thump.</p><p>Ten grinned down at her, “What’s wrong with monsters? Your uncle Hyungwon’s a monster.”</p><p>She rolled onto her side, letting out an exaggerated huff, “Uncle Wonnie is a queen, papa.” After a moment of thought, she rolled onto her stomach, legs kicking and arms stretched in front of her. “I wanna talk to Wonnie and Kyun-kyun!”</p><p>“Maybe later,” Johnny sighed, joining everyone else in the living room and unzipping the cat carriers, Akasha, their newest addition to the family, letting out a disgruntled meow as she stepped out of her carrier, fluffy black tail swishing back and forth in annoyance. “Now what did we say about your shoes when you’re inside?”</p><p>“Not to wear papa’s heels until my bones grow in.”</p><p>Ten snorted a laugh, trying to hide it from the kid sprawled on the floor. “The other thing, Tai.”</p><p>She thought a moment before sighing again, blowing raspberries instead of answering.</p><p>“Tai Haebaragi Suh, we take our shoes off at the door,” Johnny groaned, walking over to pick her up off the floor, earning shrieks of laughter as he carried her to the door to take her little pink boots off. When the task was complete, she ran back into the living room, sliding a bit on the wooden floor.</p><p>“She’s been talking about this all week,” Ten chuckled, cradling the almost-asleep infant to his chest, “And she’s asked me for a baby brother for her birthday.”</p><p>Johnny let out a laugh as he walked towards them, “And we told her no. I don’t think we could afford another surrogate just yet.”</p><p>“We could adopt. I already got a little one with your smile and you got one with my nose,” Ten shrugged, nuzzling his face against the fine hairs on Maew’s head before planting a kiss there. “Or we can just tell her that Mark’s her new brother and go from there.”</p><p>There was a pause and then a loud laugh in reply, followed by squeals of laughter as Louis investigated the toddler who was once again sprawled across the floor.</p><p>There was a long pause before Ten’s arms started to hurt from holding the baby, Johnny’s mom immediately stepping closer and offering to take her from him, which he gratefully accepted. “She’s heavier than she looks.”</p><p>His mother-in-law hummed out a laugh, Maew nestling herself into her grandmother’s arms. “Youngho was too, when he was little.”</p><p>The rest of the night was calm, with Ten retreating to his and Johnny’s room to unpack their clothing and a few toys for Tai while Johnny revelled in the time he got to spend with his daughters, completely free from work for a handful of days.</p><p>Getting the girls to sleep had always been a massive undertaking, and this night proved no different, with Tai demanding more stories and Maew refusing to be put down in the crib. It was a while before Ten and Johnny found themselves in bed, with Ten barely able to stay awake, almost immediately curling up under the blankets and burying his face into his pillow.</p><p>Johnny sat against the headboard, letting out a heavy sigh. “Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve.”</p><p>“Don’t think too much about it, baby,” Ten grumbled, throwing an arm across Johnny’s lap. “Sleep.”</p><p>“Yeah, but Little Bunny is gonna be three soon,” he answered, “I still remember when she was like… super tiny. It’s gone by too fast.”</p><p>“I know, baby, but she’s just gotten sillier with time. Now sleep.”</p><p>With a huff, Johnny seemed to give up, wiggling to lay down next to Ten, who wrapped around him and held him close until they both fell asleep.</p><p>- </p><p>Over the past year, Haebaragi had become well known for her wake up calls.</p><p>Christmas Eve was no different.</p><p>“Daddy! Papa!” she called loudly from the door, “I had a dream where… Uh...” She paused for much longer than was necessary, running over to their bed and climbing in, flopping to face Johnny, moving his long hair from his eyes. “I had a dream where <b>I</b> was a monster like Uncle Won-won and I ate a whole... car!” She was loud enough to startled the cats that had curled up on the bed with them.</p><p>Ten groaned, rolling to lay on his back and stare at the ceiling for a moment, “Really, baby?”</p><p>“Yeah! And I went...  ROAR!” She threw her arms out as best as she was able, startling Johnny awake in the process. She pulled herself to stand up, trying her best to jump with her little legs. “I want pancakes!”</p><p>“Ask your halmeoni,” Johnny grumbled, catching her and pulling her to sit down before she could fall off the bed. She seemed satisfied with the suggestion, sliding out of his grip before running out of the room. “What time is it even..?” he asked, blindly patting away at the nightstand to grab his phone. “Jesus… It’s seven. The little brat.”</p><p>Ten swatted his arm. “Don’t call her that. She’s our Christmas miracle or whatever the fuck you kept calling her for like a year.”</p><p>“She’s just so loud…”</p><p>And with that, the day was started.</p><p>Johnny’s mom had decided that it was a fine day for making kimchi, as Tai wanted kimchi jjigae for her birthday dinner the next day.</p><p>Ten was exhausted, not having slept much for the past two nights, though he kept saying he would take a nap when Maew needed a nap. Until then, he’d keep busy with other important things that needed to be taken care of.</p><p>Johnny didn’t mind taking over watching the kids while his husband did other things. Seeing as Ten was a stay-at-home father, running a business that mostly had to be worked on at night and during nap times for the girls, he enjoyed giving him a moment to do things without the kids taking over the time he had. Especially with how clingy Maew had gotten.</p><p>There were pancakes for breakfast after the cabbage had started to soak in the salted water. Ten lazily picked at his, looking only barely awake as he did. After pancakes, they cleaned up the girls and got them dressed for the day (Which was a struggle on a normal day, but Tai had run out of the bathroom completely naked and Johnny had to chase her around the house with a towel). She would need a longer bath later in the day, after she was done helping her halmeoni with making kimchi, but that didn’t excuse the current lack of pants.</p><p>-</p><p>Maew, being the tiny thing she was, was carefully held in Johnny’s arms, fingers stuffed into her mouth as she teethed on them. He held out a hand to help Tai as she stepped up onto the stool in front of the counter, her smock covering her overalls that were covered in grass stains. Even with the stool, she only stood tall enough that her head was above the counter as she watched her halmeoni work.</p><p>He remembered back when he was younger, excitedly helping his mom as she taught him how to make kimchi. Even the smock she now wore was the same one he had. And one day it would be Maew’s turn, but for now she had stopped gnawing on her tiny fingers to flop her head against his shoulder to leave a slobbery kiss.</p><p>“Oh,” he chuckled, reaching up to smooth the messy, fine hair on her head, “Thank you so much for that, princess.”</p><p>Ten had been busy in the other room, wrapping the final handful of presents for Christmas and Tai’s birthday (God, how had it been three years already?) and hiding them in places too high for her to reach, but he walked into the kitchen when he was done and held his arms out to his husband.</p><p>“Hand over Young-hee and go help your mother,” he sighed, “I’m gonna nap with her on that couch. And you’re going to take advantage of your time off work to help teach Tai. Or at least help her grab things and keep her away from the knives.”</p><p>Johnny let out a resigned chuckle, handing over the infant (she probably wasn’t anymore, but that wasn’t going to stop both of her parents from calling her one as long as they could), Ten whispering something in Thai before he pressed a tiny kiss to her forehead. Grabbing an apron from a nearby hook, he pulled it over his head before stepping over to his mother’s side to help her with chopping and grating, occasionally sneaking things off to Tai for her to try.</p><p>“You’ll have to teach me, sometime,” Ten muttered, having stepped closer to his husband and craning his neck to watch as they cooked.</p><p>Johnny could only laugh at that, “What happened to never cooking again?”</p><p>Ten huffed slightly, “I just want to make sure the girls are in touch with their Korean heritage. I can help more with the Thai side of things, but…” He was caught off guard when Johnny gave him a quick kiss.</p><p>“I’m sure mom and I can do a whole class for you on it, but… I won’t trust you to make it on your own for a while.”</p><p>“Good choice.”</p><p>Johnny kissed him one more time before gesturing towards the other room, “Take a nap. You’re exhausted.”</p><p>-</p><p>Tai and Maew had both fallen asleep during a movie that had been Johnny’s favorite growing up, and they had luckily managed to wrestle Tai into her pajamas just after dinner.</p><p>Her head was on Ten’s lap, her whole body compacted into a lump on the couch next to him as he quietly hummed and played with her hair.</p><p>“It’s weird to think that three years ago you thought you weren’t cut out to be a dad,” Johnny chuckled, “But you’ve been doing great. These girls adore their papa.”</p><p>“And they love when you’re home,” Ten answered, glancing his way before turning his attention back to the child asleep on his lap.</p><p>“Yoonoh said that he and her other uncles are going to be calling tomorrow to wish her a happy birthday. And Yuta and Mark said that if they have good service at the lodge they’re staying at, they will too.”</p><p>“Lucas and Jungwoo and Taeil and Donghyuck all sent presents and cards for her.”</p><p>“She’s going to be so spoiled. Maew, too, when she’s older.”</p><p>Ten let out a laugh, “Well, as long as we’re not at fault.</p><p>- </p><p>Unlike a usual morning, Tai was not the first awake.</p><p>Johnny and Ten both had woken up early enough to grab the many birthday presents from their hiding spots, setting them in a pile in the living room before going to wake Tai up.</p><p>5:49 am on Christmas day.</p><p>The time and day Tai had made her debut into the world and changed their lives forever.</p><p>Carefully, Ten had picked her up and carried her into the living room, with her slowly waking up, anticipation making quick work of it.</p><p>Usually, this would happen in her room, but usually, she wasn’t in the same bedroom as the world’s crankiest baby (when she’s woken up too early. Johnny claimed it was Ten’s genetics).</p><p>Before presents were touched, she was set between her two parents, kicking her little feet in excitement as Johnny put an old photo album on her lap.</p><p>“So, Little Bunny,” he started, “You get to hear a story about a picture in this storybook about our family. Where should we start?”</p><p>She thoughtfully turned the pages, finally settling at the first picture. Ten kneeling before a teary-eyed Johnny that had been taken quickly on a phone’s camera. “That one.”</p><p>“Not the one about the day you were born?” Ten hummed.</p><p>“You always tell me that one.”</p><p>“Because it’s your favorite.”</p><p>She giggled and Johnny sighed in defeat.</p><p>“Well then, little Haebaragi… That picture is from the day papa asked me to marry him six years ago…”</p><p>Ten watched as his eldest daughter attentively listened to his husband, eyes wide and soft hair mussed from sleep, Johnny pulling her in closer to his side and occasionally casting quick glances his way, smiling when their gazes met.</p><p>It wasn’t what he’d imagined all those years ago, but he wouldn’t have had it any other way.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you so much for reading this. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. You can expect more to come for the Maid To Order universe, and honestly... a lot more with drag. It didn't come up near as much in this as it will in future projects in this world.<br/>Most of the new stuff happens before this, timeline-wise.</p><p>
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  <a href="https://curiouscat.me/sweetcinnamonbun">CuriousCat</a>
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